Wolves of the Universe
by CursedFireDean
Summary: Rose accepted that she would never again see her beloved Doctor, but when she finds herself in the Torchwood hub back in her original universe, she meets up with her beloved again and weird things start happening to the two, just like old times.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. **

**Author's Note: This fanfiction takes place as if the events of series 4 never happened. Therefore, there is no meta-crisis doctor. **

Chapter 1: A Glowing Cave

Rose pulled on the harness and hooked up to the lines. Her Torchwood team had been researching and investigating into a strange reading that had popped up near the top of a cliff, and Rose was the one sent to investigate, being the lightest team member currently in the field. She clipped herself into the safety harness and began the long ascent to the top of the cliff, where the cave sat.

She began her ascent with little nervousness, however, when she began climbing higher, she realised what a workout this was going to be and how unsure of the safety lines she was. Glad she had opted for full team training as a younger team member, she called upon her seldom used climbing instructions to get to the top without slipping. Sure, she had a safety harness on, but one can never be sure of the old restraints drilled into the rock face.

And it brought her great pleasure to be able to say she never actually needed the safety rope.

She reached the top within twenty minutes and heaved herself up over the edge. On the ledge, there was, as suspected, a cave opening. However, this particular cave opening was shooting out a bright white light. Rose, unsure of the nature of this cave, pulled out the handheld scanner Torchwood had finally issued her after many near-fatal accidents while examining unknown things.

According to her scanner, the light was perfectly safe, though Rose was still wary. Being in such an occupation taught one to be wary of everything, even if technology deemed it safe. Deciding there was further investigation of the area necessary, Rose took off her harness, called to the team below, and began venturing towards the strange glowing cave. As she walking closer to it, she got a strange sense from it as if it had its own gravitational pull. The cave seemed to be expelling some kind of attractant, as every step closer Rose got to the mysterious cave, the more the need to touch it led her body in its direction.

She leaned towards it and suddenly, something seemed to shift around her. Whether she was catapulted through the light or the light came to meet her, there was no time to figure out. All of a sudden, Rose's vision was full of blinding white light, and then she fell. She landed on something hard and the white light went away, leaving her momentarily blind to her surroundings.

With wobbly legs, she stood up and looked around as her vision returned, and couldn't believe her eyes. She was in the middle of Cardiff! But this wasn't the Cardiff she was used to; there were subtle differences, differences she could only place as being from her original world, somewhere she thought for sure she would never find her way back to. After being in her universe for over twenty years watching her family grow older while the Bad Wolf inside of her kept her young without her knowledge, she never even dreamed that she could ever find her way back to her world, the doctor's world!

From the corner of her eye, Rose noticed the tell-tale signs of a perception filter, yet another skill acquired from her Torchwood training. She turned her head to see a group of people not previously there before.

Jack walked out of the perception filter with his team in tow. There had been some weevil sightings nearby and they needed to go make sure there weren't any more weevils wandering the streets of Cardiff. Gwen, Owen, Tosh, and Ianto were following him to the truck, but something caught his eye. Jack, being the man that he was, always noticed an attractive person, so when he saw a blonde woman standing several meters away from him, he immediately noticed. However, something about this woman seemed familiar to him, and when he studied the hair, he realised exactly what it was. This was Rose, Rose Tyler! Of course, that was impossible, but he knew Rose Tyler when he saw her.

Jack, oblivious to the team's confusion, began running towards the blonde girl in jeans and a deep purple leather jacket. The woman turned to face him and he knew for certain this was his Rose Tyler. Rose looked at him and immediately a smile broke on her face. He quickly turned to his team and yelled, 'Go on without me! I've got something I need to do!'

He returned his attention to the young companion and smiled, opening his arms for a hug. They rushed to meet each other and shared a wonderful hug, missing the other which they loved like a sibling. 'Rose! I can't believe you're here!' Jack cried into her ear.

'I know, neither can I!' She replied to him, pulling out of the hug.

'How… How are you here?' Jack asked, remembering perfectly well that Rose was supposed to be gone for good. (Not that he wanted her gone, of course.)

'I honestly have no idea! One minute I was investigating something for Torchwood, the next I'm falling to the ground in the square! I wish I knew what was going on!' Rose explained quickly, hoping Jack would have some answers for her. Sadly, neither Rose nor Jack had any idea how she possibly ended up in this world.

'Well, what all have you been up to? Nothing naughty, I hope.' Jack said to her jokingly.

Rose looked down at her hands before looking back up at him. 'Jack, the TARDIS did something to me. I don't know what, but I haven't aged ever since going to that parallel universe. It's been twenty years over there, and I'm still the same. I've watched people grow older… watched Tony grow up… Now I know how you feel. At least by being back here, I have someone sort of like me. I never realized how lonely it'd be. Well, I guess I know now.' She laughed half-heartedly.

Jack sat down on a bench next to her and rubber her back. 'Yeah, I know it's tough. But, on to more interesting things, what exactly were you doing before you came here?' Jack replied, trying to lighten the mood a little bit.

'Well,' Rose replied to him, 'I was on a scout for Torchwood. My team had been sent out to investigate some strange readings we were receiving. They were coming from a cave up on a cliff, so I climbed up there to see what was going on. When I got up there, the cave was emitting a bright white light. I don't know exactly why I did it, but I approached the light.' With a worried glance from Jack, she quickly tacked on, 'I scanned it first! It was supposed to be safe… Anyways, I approached it and it spit me out here. And that was when you showed up.'

A gust of wind blew and cut right through Jack's shirt. He had left his coat inside, since it was supposed to be a nice sunny day today. 'Why don't we go back to the hub where it's warmer?' He suggested.

Rose nodded. 'Sure thing. I bet it's more comfy in there as well.' Rose led Jack lead. They walked to the stones where Rose first saw the gang and Jack stepped up onto a platform. He motioned for her to get on too, and when she did, the stone began to sink down into the ground.

A 'Wow!' escaped Rose's lips as she was awed by the differences in this Torchwood and her Torchwood. Jack chuckled and put his arm around her in his friendly manner. When the stone stopped and the pterodactyl flew overhead, Rose laughed. 'This is great! So much more cozy and… Torchwood-like than my silly office building!' She said, referring to the Torchwood base back in the parallel universe. Jack stepped off the platform and began to lead Rose in the direction of his office.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

'Have you seen the doctor recently?' Rose asked suddenly, as Jack sat her down on the couch in his office. 'Since I'm back in this universe, I need to see him again.' The sense of urgency in Rose's eyes grew and Jack knew he needed to answer truthfully, as much as he'd like it if Rose spent her time with him instead.

'We've been monitoring the rift activity and have got sound recording out there, and I got Tosh to program the hub to alert us of any sign of the TARDIS. And I guess since you're not aging, we can wait as long as we want, now can't we?' There was a hint of flirting in his voice, but Rose ignored it.

'What do you mean we? I'm the one that doesn't age.' Rose replied to him.

'Oh, well, that's quite complicated, let me tell you. I don't know much about it, but it something called 'Bad Wolf.' That's all the Doc would tell me.' Jack responded with a devious smile. 'You know, if you want, while you're waiting you can work for me. You said you were employed at Torchwood in your universe, right? Seems you've got the skills to me. My team might question it, but who cares about them.' Jack shot her his signature smile and she nodded in reply.

A crash came from another entrance and Jack turned around. 'Sounds like the team's back. Picked up a weevil, too! Let's go join them in the fun, shall we?' He held out his arm to Rose and she looped her arm in his as they walkd down the hall. The cells were a bit dark and depressing, but when Rose saw the weevils housed down there, she didn't think it so horrible anymore.

The team was pushing something into a cell and Rose observed her new colleagues. There was a taller cute guy, of course not as cute as her doctor, there was an Asian woman standing next to him, a dark haired woman with an air of authority about her, and another man with a slightly larger build standing behind who smiled when Jack walked in. He looked at me questioningly, but waited while the others finished with the weevil.

They closed and locked the cell and turned to greet Jack. When the dark haired woman spotted Rose, she couldn't help but ask. 'So, who's this?' Rose could see the same question was in everyone's eyes.

She waved at them. 'Hey. I'm Rose. Rose Tyler.' They all looked at her with no recognition of the name and Rose turned to Jack for further explanation.

'Uh… Yeah, this is Rose Tyler. Long story short, we need the same doctor.' Jack answered, referring to the many times he had mentioned 'his doctor' to the team. 'She's got the credentials and she'll be joining our team… indefinitely.'

The dark haired woman looked at her curiously while the cute-ish guy gave her a look of suspicion. The larger built man looked at her curiously, with a hint of what looked like… jealousy? Rose wasn't quite sure.

Finally, someone spoke- the dark haired woman. 'I'm Gwen, Gwen Cooper.' She said before turning back to the weevil, scanning it with what Rose recognized as a general portable scanner, which checks for various diseases. The Asian woman turned from her laptop to look at Rose. 'Tosh,' She replied simply and turned back to her laptop.

The cute-ish guy then introduced himself. 'Doctor Owen Harper.' He shook her hand.

Finally, the larger-built man stepped forward and held out his hand politely. 'Hi. I'm Ianto. Ianto Jones.' He told Rose with a sweet voice.

With introductions over and the weevil scanned and contained, the team walked back to the main floor of the hub. Rose still couldn't get used to the vastly different setup of this hub versus her own. Tosh walks straight over to the more complicated of the two computer setups and settles herself, pulling up the various screens monitoring rift activity around Cardiff.

While Jack led Rose up to his office, the rest of the team huddled together. Owen glanced upwards and turned to them. 'He clearly knows her. But where's she from, she's not from UNIT, is she? Doesn't have that warrior air about her, for sure.'

Ianto glanced up. 'How close do you think they are?' The two in the window above laughed about some joke they shared. Ianto was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of another of Jack's close friends being in the proximity.

Jack and Rose come back down the stairs and the team quickly breaks back up, Ianto jogging into the kitchen to make coffee. Jack passed by all of the team members, checking all the readings as Rose wandered around the hub, acclimating to her new surroundings. The pterodactyl flew around in a start, getting itself used to the new scent of the strange woman.

A beeping sounded from Tosh's computer and she turned her head to look at the flashing red chart. 'Jack, big burst of energy from the rift. You'd better go check it out.'

Jack called out to the team. 'Owen, Gwen, Rose, come on!'

Rose jogged over to the rest of the team and Owen hands her a spray can. 'This is-' she cut him off. 'I know what it is Owen, I've been a part of Torchwood before.' She turned around to follow Jack, leaving Owen even more baffled and curious of her past than before. Owen picked up another tool and handed it to Rose, as she knew how to use it.

The team of four ran up the stairs out to where the readings were coming from. Jack broke off to quickly unlock the car, which was parked over in the nearby lot. The sun had just set and the area was deserted of humans, all the workers in the nearby buildings left ten minutes beforehand. However, across the stretch of open space, there were three weevils.

'Alright guys, split up and catch these guys.' Jack called out.

Rose spoke up quickly. 'Hey Jack, we didn't have very many weevils. I don't know how to handle these.'

Jack turned to face her, and then called back to the team. 'Team, let them go. We've got a training session to give.' They turned around and walked back to Jack. Jack pointed silently to the weevil hanging around in the corner.

'What we do, Rose, is corner them.' The team surrounded the beast. 'Then we get them to the truck. Open up the back, would you?' Rose jogged quickly to the car and pulled open the trunk. She turned back to the team in hopes of seeing as much of the capture process as possible.

The group was leading the weevil by spraying it with cans, the same cans that she had in her pocket currently. She stepped out of the way as they neared the truck and Jack tossed her a pair of handcuffs. It didn't take her too long to figure out what to do with them. From behind the subdued weevil, she snapped the heavy-duty cuffs onto its arms. Owen closed the trunk and they all hopped in to drive the creature back to the hubs where it couldn't roam about the city anymore.

They pulled into a back entrance that Rose was unaware of. She discovered as they were walking, that it led back to the cells she had seen before. Jack opened up the doors while Owen, Gwen, and Rose led the subdued weevil to the cells. As they were approaching the cells, the weevil began to slowly regain its energy. They began moving it faster, in hopes to lock it in a cell before it had an outburst.

Jack was rushing to type in the code of the next empty cell when the weevil got angry. It, seeing the two people in front of it, slashed backwards in hopes of finding an escape route. Its sharp claws caught Rose as it spun, and Rose could feel the warmth of blood along her left arm, stomach, and right wrist as she fell to the ground.

Ianto appeared at the bottom of the stairs and relieved Owen of his task to go help the bleeding blond. Rose could hardly focus on the face in front of her, let alone the pain across her body. Her vision was blurring, but she vaguely recognized Owen standing above her. 'Good.' She though. 'A doctor.'

Ianto, Gwen, and Jack wrestled the weevil into the cell quickly, avoiding the sharp, flailing claws that had just injured their new teammate. They couldn't quite wrestle it in, however they were succeeding at keeping it away from the bleeding girl on the floor.

'I have to get her to the medical bay! I can't fix her like this, she's losing way too much blood.' Owen called out to the team, hoping they could spare a person.

'Can you handle it by yourselves?' Ianto called to Jack and Gwen over the snarling of the weevil. They nodded, and he sprinted to Owen. He reached Owen as Rose closed her eyes and Owen nervously tried to awaken her again. He glanced around several times. For the first time in a long while, Owen actually looked seriously concerned. 'Way way too much blood…' he whispered to himself, but Ianto could still hear him.

Ianto coughed and Owen noticed his presence. They picked her up together while Owen tried to keep pressure on her long wound unsuccessful in stopping the bleeding. They rushed up the stairs and sprinted through the hub and to the medical hub. Tosh, upon seeing this, jumped out of her chair and jogged over to the medical bay, leaning against the railing to watch from afar.

Owen looked over the girl. 'Shit. She's not breathing.' He tried to get her breathing again, but he knew he also had to stitch up her wound and get more blood in her. With the wound finally stitched up, Jack and Gwen sprinted into the medical bay overhang next to Tosh, who had her hand over her mouth.

Ianto could see that Jack's eyes were strained, as this woman seemed to be very important to him. He wanted to comfort Jack about it, yet he knew it wouldn't be possible until this was all over. When Jack saw that Rose wasn't getting any better despite the best efforts of their top-notch doctor, he leaned his head again the railing.

Owen, after unsuccessfully trying to get the girl breathing again, placed his fingers on her wrist. 'One…Two…Three…Four…' He counted up to a minute without feeling a single pulse. He hung his head before glancing up at the distressed audience and slowly shook his head. Jack leaned down against the railing again.

After several minutes, as Owen was putting up his equipment, Jack jerked his head upwards and then jogged down the stairs, placing himself next to Rose. Owen, while cleaning, kept hearing the captain mutter things about 'the doctor.' No doubt, it was about the doctor those two had been waiting for, Owen decided.

The team over the course of the next ten minutes dispersed back to their posts while Jack stayed put next to the girl. 'You just got here…' he whispered to her in a rasping voice. 'You… you can't go now… not now…' Tears fell down his face as he squeezed the hand of the blond. 'Rose…'

Half an hour later, Gwen came back to the railing to check on her boss. Seeing him still sitting down there, she began to leave.

'Gwen, I'm coming now.' He said in a coarse voice, as if he had been crying. When she turned around to see his face, the redness of his eyes proved this theory correct. She turned back around and walked back to her desk. Jack reached the top stair and glanced back down at Rose, wondering how she was so unlucky.

Rose sat up rapidly and took in a long deep breath. A golden light flowed out of her mouth. Jack sprinted back down the stairs, a smile plastered upon his face. His eyes lit up with hope. 'Rose!' he called, loud enough for the rest of the team to hear.

'Bad Wolf.' He heard come from her mouth softly before she collapsed back down onto the table, unconscious. Owen appeared at the bottom of the stairs and quickly began to set up an IV for her, in case she didn't wake up within the next 24 hours.

Hours later, the team was packing up to leave. Tosh had gone home finally and Gwen had left early for her weekly date night with Rhys. That left Owen, Ianto, and Jack. Owen had finished packing up and had given Jack instructions if Rose was to not wake up by morning. Ianto was cleaning the coffee machine, something he insisted on doing before he left once every week.

That left Jack alone down in the bay with Rose, awaiting the girl's return to consciousness. 'See you tomorrow, Jack.' Owen called down the stairs before leaving through the front door. Ianto, Jack assumed, was still cleaning. He was no doubt going to say goodnight before he left.

He heard the change in her breathing telling him she was waking up. He picked up the girl and carried her up to his office, setting her on the more comfortable couch. Rose slowly opens her eyes, and slowly sits up with a hand on her head as if she had a headache. Then memories seemed to flood her and she ran her hand over her stomach, feeling the perfect flatness of skin that has not scarred.

Jack sat down on a swivel chair and watched her as she fully returned to consciousness. 'Hey, how're you feeling?' Jack said quietly to her. 'What do you remember?' He asked her, wondering if she could remember waking up and whispering 'bad wolf.'

'Oh… I remember… there was a weevil. It scratched me… Owen was trying to heal me and I fell unconscious… then I woke up here.' She replied, as if it weren't too unusual.

Jack paused for a moment. 'You died Rose. You died, then came back to life. Just like I can.' Shock was plastered on the girl's face, proving Jack's idea that she hadn't known she was immortal like him. 'You can stay the night here, with me if you want.'

Rose nodded. 'Yeah, I've got nowhere else to go.'

Jack smiled. 'I'll be working for a while, but you're welcome to fall asleep right there. Sadly, I've got nowhere else you could stay… Is that okay?' Rose nodded in reply and quickly fell back asleep on the couch, excited for seeing the team again tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Rose awoke with a start as someone from below shouted. She recognized the rougher voice of Owen and in a few seconds, Tosh's voice urgently joined in as well. 'Jack, We've got insane readings from the rift! There's not an excess of energy though… it's as if all the energy is gone- gone down off the charts. I've never seen activity this low.'

Rose pushed herself off of the couch and rolled her neck as she jogged down the stairs to see what the fuss was about. Jack, she discovered as she stopped, was following just behind her. Jack looks at the readings, and then presses a button on Tosh's computer, opening up the sound recording coming from above them.

The sound, though familiar to Rose and Jack, was just a strange whooshing to the rest of the team. While Rose and Jack sprinted up the stairs in a heartbeat, the rest of the team gathered up their equipment to check out the strange noises.

Rose followed Jack as he sprinted up the stairs, as he seemed to know exactly where he was going. He ran out of the entrance and stood by the door watching the vast stretch of concrete where the rift lay. Rose stood next to him, her eyes flying around trying to locate the glimpses of blue that offered the location of the materializing TARDIS.

She saw a flash of blue and her eyes locked onto the position. A police box did materialize and it was no doubt the TARDIS, however there was a cleaner, newer feel to the box than the one she knew so well.

She was about to walk forward as she saw a pair walk out of the box, holding hands. There was the man- a sort of geeky looking fellow with dirty blonde hair walking alongside a skinny and quite pretty redheaded woman. 'Is that the doctor?' Both of the Torchwoods thought to themselves.

They were both staring at the couple in awe as a third person walked out of the TARDIS, a man with a quite unique wardrobe. He was wearing a tweed jacket, suspenders, and a bow tie. With the distinctive spunk and childish demeanour he possessed as he exited the box, Rose and Jack immediately recognized him as the doctor. 'A bow tie?' Rose whispered to Jack with a giggle.

'Doctor!' Rose shouted with a grin covering her face. 'Doc, Hey Doc!' Jack yelled after her, in the direction of the quickly departing threesome. Rose yelled some more. 'Doctor, Hey! Doctor!' She began jogging in his direction, eager to meet up with the man.

Owen, Tosh, Gwen, and Ianto exited the hub in time to see the captain and the new girl yelling crazily at three random pedestrians. Ianto looked confusedly at Jack, Owen shared the face directing it at both of them, and Gwen and Tosh looked curiously at the three people walking in the other direction.

The man in the bow tie froze, as if hearing something familiar, which in fact, he was. 'But that's not possible. That's just not possible.' He whispered to himself. Spinning on his heels to face the pair of humans yelling at him, he prayed that it was in fact possible and that his mind was not simply playing tricks on him.

Sure enough, behind him yelling were Jack and his beloved Rose. 'Rose!' He yelled back as he jogged in their direction. Amy and Rory, upon hearing his yell, spun around curiously and began walking after the fast-moving time lord.

Rose broke into a sprint, as did her doctor. They met in the middle and she leaped into his arms, hugging him close. 'Doctor, I've missed you.' She whispered in his ear as she gripped him tight. 'I've missed you too, Rose. So much. But, how are you here?' He whispered back as he set her down on the ground again. Jack joins in their hug, pinning them together in a group hug. 'How're you doing doc?'

'I've told you Jack, Doctor. Not Doc.' He replied with a smile. The redhead and the blonde approached behind him, as did the Torchwood team behind Jack and Rose. Rose watched as something vibrated in Owen's pocket.

He pulled out a small handheld device and glanced up at the doctor curiously. 'Uh, Jack. This guy's not human.' He said softly to Jack, trying not to be overheard by the three newcomers.

'You're quite correct, Owen. He's certainly not human.' Jack laughed and the rest of the team watched awkwardly, wondering when Jack became such good friends with an alien. 'I see you've regenerated again then, doc?' He said, trying to stir up conversation.

'Yes, I did.' He said matter-of-factly. He twisted around and gestured for the two behind him to come over to Rose and Jack. 'This is Amy and Rory Pond, my companions.' The doctor says quickly to Jack. 'Amy and Rory, this is Rose Tyler, a dear companion of mine from a while ago, and Jack Harkness.' He turned back to his old friends. 'Well, we were just going for some fish and chips, if you two would like to join us.'

'Of course, we're coming!' The two said together. They all began walking away, but something within Tosh's pocket begins letting out an unnerving siren. Jack spun around and Tosh pulled out the device. 'Uh, Jack, the rift activity just spiked. Something is going on.'

The doctor twisted around just in time to see the TARDIS materializing out of sight. 'No No No!' He exclaimed as he ran to his box. 'No, girl, where are you going?' Jack appeared next to him. 'It's the rift, doc. The rift is doing something to her!' The box finally completely dematerialized and they stared at each other in awe.

Jack sighed. 'I've got to go back to the hub. We need to analyse those readings.' The captain slowly walked back to the team. The doctor followed, motioning for the Ponds to come with him. 'Let's come explore Torchwood, shall we?' The man said to his companions as they walked into the hub behind Jack.

Rose held the doctor's hand, thinking the same thing as everyone else; Where had the TARDIS gone? She followed Jack down the finally-familiar path into the hub, squeezing the doctor's hand, glad to see him again as they both thought they never would.

Upon reaching the hub, the team demanded to know who the newcomers were. 'Oh, that's… Doctor Smith and his… colleagues Amy and Rory Pond.' Jack replied quickly, not wishing to explain his complicated circumstances involving knowing this man. The team, knowing perfectly well he had just lied to them, accepted the answer anyways and got to analysing the readings. Sure enough, in the time that it took the TARDIS to disappear, the rift had a huge energy surge.

The Doctor followed Rose over to her station with Gwen and used his handy sonic screwdriver to help them with the particular things they were analysing. He looked at his sonic, and to his surprise, the thing told him nothing was wrong. He, with a frustrated attitude, scanned the computers again. Once again, the results came up clear and he knew something must have been very very wrong.

Rose and Gwen were getting nowhere with their computers either. Despite the expensive, top of the line computer systems and specially designed programs and technology, the computers just couldn't seem to recognize what was wrong with the rift.

Jack helped Owen read his results while Ianto went around and fixed everyone some calming tea. (Not that anyone actually drank it.) Just like with Gwen and Rose, the computers were not recognizing a threat, nor were they recognizing any change out of the ordinary. Upon closer look, Jack noticed however, that the computers weren't even recognizing the changes that always happened. If there was one thing Jack knew from his many years in the hub, it was that the readings are always changing in minute ways. And right now, they certainly were not, as if they were frozen in place by something.

He lifted his head and turned to approach the doctor and tell him the news. At that precise moment however, all of the electricity within the hub cut off, leaving them in the complete darkness. Jack didn't dare move, knowing that there were enough chains and gadgets in between him and his target that he was bound to hurt himself trying.

Something flashed in the corner, and the emergency lockdown lights began flashing and warnings were blaring. 'Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Lockdown initiated.' The generators finally kicked in and all of the lights returned to normal. The red lights on the walls were still flashing, but the team tried to pay as little mind to them as possible.

'Doctor, what's going on?' Rory yells over to him. The doctor yanks out his sonic again and begins frantically scanning all over. 'No Vashta Nerada… no miniscule creatures of any sort… no other less intelligent lifeforms at all… wait.' He paused for a while. 'Jack… we seem to have a slight problem.'

Jack, who was busy trying to log into the computers despite the lockdown, turned to face the concerned time lord. 'My instincts are telling me something is in here doctor, what does trusty sonic say?'

He looked up from his sonic and looked at Jack with a face more concerned than he had ever seen before. 'Jack, something IS in here. It's not a life-form… per say, but it's definitely as smart if not smarter than a human being. If I would take a wild guess… well not wild, but a guess, it'd be that this is some sort of gaseous being.' Owen gestured to Gwen and they both went trotting down the stairs to the cells.

The two returned quickly and reported that the weevils were all accounted for and securely in their cells, however that left the issue of what this intelligent thing wandering around the hub was and what it wanted with the Torchwood team.

The emergency generators kicked on, flooding the room with enough light to finally be able to see the entire room. Jack watched as the doctor pulled out his sonic and waves it around. He glances down at his sonic in his hand. 'I've got some good news. The Vashta Nerada aren't here.' He said this as if they all knew what this meant, however, on Earth in Cardiff, they simply had never run into the Vashta Nerada threat. 'They eat flesh.' He explained simply, as he focused on finding the threat.

Ianto is the first to speak up. 'If it's not the Vashta Nerada… then what is it?'

A silence fell over the team and they glanced around uneasily. 'I'll find out, I promise you that.' The doctor replied, in a rare moment of complete seriousness. The small pen-like device in his hand began wailing and shaking, alerting the doctor that there was in fact, something quickly approaching. The results announced it as some sort of creature within the air, most likely some sort of smoke-type creature that would float across the bottom of the floor.

The doctor looked up and saw that the sonic was right. Coming from the main entrance was the blackest, thickest smoke any of them had ever seen, but it was not behaving at all like smoke. For one, instead of rising, it was clearly moving its way across the floor, towards the nearest life forms- in this case, the Torchwood team, the doctor, Rory, and Amy. Amy backed away slowly to stand behind her husband as he stood protectively in front of her, reminding the doctor of the last centurion soldier.

Gwen and Owen quietly crept to the weapons room and pulled out various things, passing them to Rose, Jack, and Ianto as well as a gun to Rory. The doctor, armed with his trusty sonic screwdriver, stepped forward to face this beast.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The doctor, as he stepped forward, was joined by Captain Jack Harkness. The two brave men, though scared beyond imagine, stood stone-faced in front of this advancing creature. To them, it didn't matter so much that they were scared as it did that they were doing this for their friends and family.

'What do you want with us?' The Captain bellowed at the creature. At first, everyone thought it would not reply, but then it spoke in a raspy, almost floating voice.

'I am the Abrosmin. I have come… I have come for… for the girl.' The doctor looked at Rose, while the rest of the team tried to figure out which girl the smoke meant.

'Why do you want her?' The doctor said protectively, worried for the sake of the woman he just got back.

The smoke paused before answering. 'I want her… because she smells good. She smells like… like time.'

Nobody answered for a moment, but wheels were spinning in the doctor's head. He was remembering things, events from long ago in his childhood. When he was merely nine years old, he remembered learning about something like this in school. 'No…' he murmured as he was engulfed by this memory.

_The small child walked into class distracted. The previous day, they had learned about nice aliens that were quite friendly, and today they were to begin their unit on dangerous aliens. He had loved learning of the friendly aliens, but he was scared of the more dangerous ones. He had never known some of his family members, as they had been taken by aliens. _

_He sat down in his normal seat and prepared for class. He was excited about this lesson too, to know where to avoid and where to go often when he one day became a traveller of time and space. His teacher walked in right on time and all of his fellow classmates turned to her and watched, all eager to learn about this particular topic. _

'_Class, today we will be learning about the single most dangerous of all aliens. Once one time-travels, these beings will hunt them down until they are captured. I'm talking about the Abrosmin. These creatures look quite harmless on the outside, but they're very dangerous to time-travellers, or really anyone who has touched the time vortex in any way. _

_These beings, they take the form of a common gas found on whatever planet they're invading. If they're on Earth, they will show in the form of smoke. Here, in the form of a yellow gas like our clouds, on other planets they may be blue or clear or any other colour. And these creatures travel with one purpose: they travel because they survive on the flesh of time. _

_They've killed many Gallifreyans before you, and they will most certainly kill many more. I'm telling you this so that none of you will be those unfortunate souls. They have been known to dislike the flesh of time-lords, however there's not yet any other time-travellers in the world, and therefore no other flesh of time for them to eat. _

_When Earth finally creates time travel, they will most likely shift their focus to humans, but we have not reached such point yet. But let me tell you, if one ever sees you, it will kill you and it will eat you. _

_Now, what makes these so dangerous, you may wonder? Well, they are s dangerous because they are almost impossible to kill. To kill these creatures, you need to trap it in place alone, without the presence of another, so that you can infect it without infecting someone else. That's the hardest part- getting it alone. From there, you need to fill up its container with pure, undiluted water, more specifically, H20. That should get rid of the creature. Just remember, if you do run into one of these and can't get it alone, run. Just run. If you can get far enough fast enough, it'll lose you or give up. Always remember that, class.' _

The doctor looked up as he focused from out of his memory, rejoicing internally that he had remembered how to destroy this creature.

The creature floated closer to him. 'I want… the girl. And I want… you… time lord.' It rasped.

'Well why don't you want Jack then?' The doctor replied, truly curious as to why the third time-traveller was unwanted.

'Because… he smells wrong… smells… bad…' it replied, and the doctor was momentarily baffled. He recovered quickly, then turned back to the dark floating creature.

'If you're going to eat us… can I at least have a moment to say goodbye to my friends? You've trapped us here, so there's no way we can escape. Please?' The doctor replied to the gaseous monster. Rose, Jack, and the Ponds looked at him like he was insane, knowing that their doctor never gave up. Jack was about to say something, but the creature spoke first.

'Don't keep me waiting long… I'm hungry.' It hovered in place while the Doctor dragged the Torchwood team and his companions with him to the other side of the hub.

'I know how we can defeat this thing. There's only one way to do it, and that's to trap it alone and drown it in pure H2O. It's going to be difficult, but we need to find a way to do it. None of you can be in there though; I'm not going to be the cause of anyone getting hurt. I've done that enough… You know this place better than I do, Jack. What can we do?' The doctor whispered in the tight huddle.

Jack thought for a moment. 'We do have a room, and experimental room we recently built. It's got a special tube to fill the room with whatever compound we want. We built it to contain more aliens, but this seems like a pretty good time to use it.'

The doctor smiled wide and then frowned again. 'Well, how are we supposed to get it in there, Jack?' The rest of the team turned to the captain, wondering the same exact thing.

'Doc, I'm immortal. I'll live; I can lead it in there.' He replied without a moment's hesitation. With a frown still upon his face, the doctor nodded. 'I don't see another choice…'

They broke their huddle and Jack marched straight up to the hovering being. 'Hey, here's the deal. You can have me first. I'm still a time-traveller, I'll taste delicious and satisfy your hunger, right?'

The beast stayed silent. Jack stared it down. 'Yes… you will satisfy… as well as the others… I am hungry. You go first.' It finally agreed.

'Catch me if you can!' Jack yelled with a laugh as he sprinted towards the stairs down to the cells. The big black beast followed him closely as it tried to keep up. The rest of the gang ran after them and when the beast reached the room, Gwen slammed the door shut behind it and pulled the airtight seal. 'Tosh, go!' she yelled as Tosh quickly programmed the computer to fill up the room with water. She turned on the security cameras in time to see water beginning to cover the floor and Jack dodging the strikes of the creature.

As soon as the water was deep enough, Jack ducked under it. The creature, as much as it wanted Jack, wouldn't penetrate the barrier of water, knowing it was his only downfall. 'You… time lord… you betrayed me…' They heard through the security microphones.

As the water filled up the room, there was no way they couldn't hear the screech that came from the creature. The wailing travelled easily through the door, and blasted the ears of the onlookers.

When the wailing stopped, they looked at the security feed to see the blackness completely gone. Jack however, was floating in the middle of the room completely limp. Ianto let out a cry and hit the 'drain' button. They watched in agonizing slowness as the water trickled through the tiny drain at the bottom of the room, and when the level was finally below ankle level, Ianto couldn't wait any longer.

He burst into the room and ran straight to his companion, Jack. He kneeled down next to him and held his hand as he waited for him to awaken once again. After a minute longer, Jack sucked in a breath and opened his eyes to see the wonderful face of his favourite person within Torchwood: Ianto Jones. He reached up and gave Ianto a hug, while the rest of the team watched in amazement as their boss once again defied death.

Rose smiled, finally able to fully believe in Jack's abilities. The Doctor, who had already seen proof of Jack's amazing situation, relaxed his tense muscles. Ianto helped Jack up, and Jack quickly recovered his strength and consciousness. The team all bunch up around him, giving him slaps on the back and congratulations and thanks for sacrificing himself yet again for his team.

Amy and Rory, the curious couple, watched the doctor with confused eyes. When he turned around, they spoke to him before he could scamper off somewhere. 'Doctor, what the hell just happened?' Rory said sternly, being reminded once again that the doctor knows so much more than them.

The Doctor simply smiled. 'It's a long story, Rory. It's a long long story…' And with such a lame answer given, the doctor strode off, leaving Amy and Rory once again wondering why they liked this man so much. Rose walked over to them with a smile brightening up her face.

'Hey, have either of you seen where the doctor went?' She asked the two. Amy replied to her, 'He just went that way, but before you go, can we ask you a question?' Rose turned to follow her beloved tome lord, but swivelled back to face the Ponds. 'Yeah, sure.' She looked truly curious to hear what Amy was wondering about.

'Well, I was wondering if you could tell me… how exactly Jack ended up like that.' Amy asked, letting go of her husband to listen intently to Rose's answer.

'Well… I can tell you about when it may have happened, but that's really all I know. I've gotten bits and pieces over the years, but I just can't remember those days that well… I think it caused the doctor to regenerate though… into the doctor before this one, I'd assume. You met the Daleks?' Rose explains to Amy, hoping that for the doctor's sake the Daleks hadn't returned again like they seemed to have a knack for doing.

'We have actually… the doctor was really violent, more than I've ever seen him.' She replied, remembering the days with the Daleks in World War II, where the doctor seemed to be eternally full of frustration, anger, and sadness.

Rose frowned a bit, before pulling herself back up. 'Well, the first time I met Jack, he was a con-man in the Blitz, saved me from falling off a zeppelin, actually. I don't think he was immortal then… I really can't be sure… Well, anyways, he ended up getting shot by a Dalek later and well, we assumed he had died. Then… the doctor was threatening to wipe out all the Daleks with the press of a button. The thing was, it'd kill him, me, and all the other humans within the vicinity.

'He decided he was going to save me though, he put me in the TARDIS and sent me back home. I didn't want to go home though, so my friend helped me rip a hole in the console…. And that's really as far as I can remember. I've got a hazy memory of something golden killing the Daleks, reviving Jack, but then… I don't know. I just remember waking up in the TARDIS next to the doctor dying… Then after than when we ran into Jack again, he was immortal.' Rose said, matter-of-factly. She seemed to become very distant as she thought about that moment, falling deep into memories surrounding the event. She knew subconsciously that she was the one that saved Jack, but she could never locate the memory and thus couldn't explain it.

She turned away, deep in thought, and wandered off after the doctor, leaving Amy and Rory just as confused as before. 'Space and Time… why is it so messed up?' Rory whispered to his wife. She giggled, and they both strode after Rose and the Doctor, hand in hand.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

'So, how's about we go get those fish n' chips now?' The Doctor called to his friends, looking at Rose as he used a more loving tone. Rose smiled and Amy began to lead the way, always eager for a date with her wonderful Rory.

Suddenly, the Doctor stopped and turned to Rose with his serious face on. _Oh no, something must be wrong, he's never serious! _Rose thought to herself. As her expression turned worried, the Doctor smiled and wrapped her in a big bear hug that swung her up into the air, similar to something her leather-clad doctor may have done, had he not regenerated as early as he did. 'Oh Rose, with all that has been going on since the TARDIS disappeared, we never got to catch up! I've missed you so much, I didn't get to say that before… did I?' He set her down, still holding his arms lovingly around her.

'Oh, Doctor, are all your thoughts this sporadic now?' Rose smiled up at her beloved. 'But no, you didn't get a chance to tell me that before. Nor did I tell you.' Her smile grew. 'I've missed you too.' They looked into each other's eyes, deep in thought, as the yell of Amy startled them out of their trance.

'Hey, you two! Some of us actually want food!' Amy called jokingly and waved them towards the door of the hub. The broke apart and followed after the stubborn, headstrong redhead and clasped their hands together. The two, though neither would admit it, were unwilling to stop touching the other in fear that this was all a dream and losing contact would make this world dissolve into reality.

Amy smiled at them and linked arms with her Rory and the four of them sauntered out of the hub.

Jack watched the Doctor leave before grabbing a drink from the fridge and sitting down in his office. Gwen followed him in there and stood in front of him. 'Jack, weren't you going to go with them?' she asked curiously. Jack took a long gulp from his can before answering in a monotone voice. 'Gwen, They're probably the only couple that can make me feel like a third wheel. And I don't like the feeling.' He took another sip.

Gwen laughed to herself, never expecting the words 'third wheel' come out of his mouth. 'Well, why don't you come downstairs and eat some Chinese with me? Tosh, and Owen are already down there and Ianto should be back soon. I'm sure they'll be glad to share with you.' Gwen smiled at him, hoping he'd accept.

Instead, the stubborn fellow sat quietly, leaving Gwen without an answer. She heard the door downstairs open, signalling Ianto's return with the food. 'I'll ask Owen to save some for you then?' she called as she walked out of his office and down to the others.

Rose and the Doctor walked out of the hub hand in hand, both hoping and willing the TARDIS to be sitting there, right where they parked her. Sadly, that was not the case. As Amy and Rory walked with purpose towards the small café, the Doctor and Rose walked to the spot the TARDIS should be sitting. As they approached, the doctor dropped Rose's hand and raised his hands towards the spot. 'Where is she?' He exclaimed. Rose stopped next to him and shared his confusion, grabbing his hand again in a comforting gesture.

'I bet she's trying to tell you there's something else here you need to do.' Rose suggested quietly in a soft, reassuring voice. 'Isn't that usually what she wants when she brings you somewhere? She wants you to do something.' Rose looked up at him to see him pouting like a young child. She couldn't hold back her laughter, and the Doctor looked at her with a hurt expression.

'What's so funny? The TARDIS is gone!' He said to her.

Rose giggled some more before composing herself for an answer. 'It's your face! She'll come back when we need her, I promise you. Why don't we go eat before Amy comes over here and drags us there?' They both turned to see Amy standing in the door of the café, an impatient look upon her face.

This cheered the Doctor up. 'Yes, I suppose we shouldn't keep Mrs Pond waiting any longer, should we?' He interlaced his arm with Rose's and together they sauntered slowly towards the cafe, all the while making Amy more impatient.

They followed the redhead into the café and sat down in a booth together- Amy and Rory on one side and The Doctor and Rose on the other. The Doctor simply glanced at his menu, but never picked it up to study it. Rose glanced at him questioningly after she decided what she wanted. Amy and Rory chose quickly, and when the waitress came back, Rose learned of the Doctor's new tongue.

'Sir, what would you like?' She asked him in a flirtatious tone. Rose glared at her, but she seemed to hardly notice the girl.

'I'll have fish fingers with custard.' He replied to her simply, not paying her much mind at all.

The waitress asked Amy next, then Rory, and finally Rose. She repeated Amy's order of fish and chips and then turned to her favourite man sitting next to her. 'So… what is this about fish sticks and custard?' Rose asked in a light-hearted manner, her eyes gleaming up at the Doctor.

'They're good! You should try it.' He replied to her with a fake look of hurt on his face. The waitress brought out their drinks and they all began their conversation once again.

The Doctor spoke first, commenting on the happenings of the TARDIS. 'Well, we're stuck here for a while. There must still be something here that we need to do, because the TARDIS isn't back yet. I bet it'll find us once we finish our meal.' He tried to speak optimistically, as if they should be excited for this.

'That is, if it doesn't find us before.' Rose replied to him jokingly. Amy and Rory turned to her with looks of laughing agreement on their faces.

The waitress came back and started distributing the plates, giving the Doctor his custard in a blue bowl on the side next to Rose. They all began eating as the waitress walked away. Rory silently chowed down on his food, while Amy and Rose leaned over the table and quietly conversed, too quietly for the Doctor to understand them.

They leaned back in their seats and Rose started conversation with her Doctor. 'So, Doctor, what exactly does that taste like?' She gestured to the fish fingers and bowl of custard. The Doctor, biting off another chunk, looked at where she was indicating.

'Try it.' He replied simply, sliding the blue bowl closer to his Rose and handing her a finger from his plate. Rose took it with a smile on her face, in her unique way with her tongue between her teeth. She dipped the fish finger in the bowl of custard and took a bite, not doubting the taste buds of her Doctor.

She smiled larger as she learned why the Doctor enjoyed the fish and custard together, and the Doctor smiled back when he recognized her reaction. 'That's delicious!' Rose said to him when she had finished chewing. 'Why did you try it in the first place though? I never expected them to go together.'

Amy laughed. The Doctor answered Rose's question simply with, 'Regenerated, I was hungry. It just spoke to me.'

Amy frowned and then turned her head seriously to the Doctor. 'You know, that reminds me! You still owe me a box of fish fingers and custard! You did take them from my freezer, after all.'

Everyone but Rose laughed at Amy's request. The Doctor turned to Rose and whispered in her ear, 'I first met Amy when the TARDIS crashed into her garden when she was a child. I had just regenerated.' Rose laughed along with the rest of them, surprised at the new Doctor's way with children. She assumed it must have had something to do with the even more childish personality that he gained when he regenerated.

They all enjoyed the rest of their meal, filling the time with stories of where they had been to bring Rose up to date. Rose asked the Doctor yet another question once they had finished. 'Doctor, you do have money, don't you?'

'Of course I have money! Not… Earth money, but money.' The Doctor looked offendedly at Rose, as if her question was one that needed no answering.

Amy smiled and shook her head as she pulled out her own wallet to pay for their meal. 'You'd better return this favour sometime, Doctor.'

As the four of them walked out of the café, a loud crash from their right caught their attention. They all swivelled their heads to see a trashcan topple over, revealing a small, bony, clearly malnourished German Shepherd type dog. The white coat of the creature was matted and brown with dirt and mud, and the ribs on it were clearly visible. The thing looked as if it could hardly walk, it was so weak. Rose and Amy, both with compassion in their hearts for the poor creature ran over to it.

'Amy, you don't know where that thing's been! It probably has fleas!' Rory yelled after her as she began to pet the scared, cornered creature. Rose looked into the dog's eyes and felt a connection- she couldn't describe it to anyone, but she knew she had to save this dog. From behind them, the familiar noise of the TARDIS sounded as it materialized in the alleyway.

The Doctor jumped at the chance to get his TARDIS back, leaping to the door as soon as it was fully formed. 'Come on Rose, Ponds!' Rory followed inside and Amy reluctantly stood up from the dog and followed as well.

'Rose, come on. It's just a stray, it'll fend for itself.' She called to Rose. Rose shook her head. 'No Amy, there's something special about this dog. I don't know what it is, but there's something about him.' The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS, and upon seeing his Rose Tyler still crouched by the animal, stepped completely out of his blue box.

'Rose?' He questioned her. Rose kept facing the stray as she spoke. 'Doctor, can we take him with us?'

The Doctor was baffled- she had never been much of an animal person to him. 'Why?' was all that he could think to say.

Rose looked up at him this time with a pleading look on her face. 'I don't know why Doctor, but I just know we need to help him. I can just feel it.' The Doctor recognized the feeling she meant, as he had felt it himself several times a long time ago and nodded to her. 'Very well, but you get to feed him.'

Rose smiled at him. 'Thank you Doctor!' She turned back to the mutt. 'Hear that boy, you get to come stay in the TARDIS with me. Isn't that great?' The wolf slowly approached Rose, sniffed her, and then licked her face as if he was a dog. She laughed and the canine followed her timidly as she walked into the TARDIS.

Upon her entrance into the TARDIS, Amy gawked for a moment before running to the bathroom and starting up the water to give the mangy animal a bath. If there was one thing Amy knew, it was to try not to question the Doctor because usually, he's right. Rose slowly led the animal to the nearest bathroom, in which she found Amy awaiting her.

When the dog entered the bathroom, he froze up, glancing nervously at his leader- Rose. Rose slowly reached towards him, but he lowered himself to the ground, seemingly fearful of the noise. Rose crawled to him and pulled him forward gently by his front paws, showing him that this was not a scary place. The dog, now within a few feet of the tub, stood up and curiously bent over the side.

He saw the curious clear liquid, but seemed to recognize it. He slowly put one foot over into it, then another. Rose grabbed his back legs and lifted the rest of him into the tub. Once in, he collapsed into the water, as if to relax. He got himself all wet, then looked up at Rose with an expectant glance.

Rose beamed at the clever dog and dug around in the cabinet. The TARDIS, as always, had put the items they needed in there- dog shampoo, conditioner, and a brush for his fur. Rose pulled out the shampoo and began lathering the dog. He stood up and gave a sort of smile, as if he was enjoying the bath.

'I think he must have been a pet.' Amy commented. 'Otherwise, he wouldn't be so comfortable with this.' Rose was thinking something different, but she didn't share with Amy.

They finished cleaning up the dog around nightfall and, with a burst of confidence, the dog followed Rose to her bedroom with a wagging tail. Rose set some blankets on her floor for the pooch and climbed in bed. The dog curled up happily in the soft blankets and wrapped himself in them. Rose closed her eyes and fell asleep with the certain thought that this was not a dog. It was a boy, and the TARDIS wanted her to help him. She didn't know how it was possible, but she was certain of this. A warm body pressed against her own and she opened her eyes to see the clean white dog curled up on the bed, cuddling against her side. With a sigh of care for the creature, Rose fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**I really don't know why this happened, but I've written the first 5 chapters of this steadily and then as I actually upload it, I get complete writer's block. :p Oh, the world! But here it is- didn't take too too long. **

Chapter 6

Rose woke up to see the dog still curled in her bed, on top of the covers and completely relaxed. She smiled and softly pulled herself out of the bed, trying not to disturb the dog. _Sam. _She thought to herself. He lifted his head when she got up and when she began getting dressed, he trotted to her side. He sat on the floor patiently as she was getting ready and finally they walked out to greet the other occupants.

The dog, Sam, Rose has decided, was more confident this morning, possibly feeling comforted by the presence of Rose. The Doctor, as always, was already awake and at the console. 'Good Morning!' Rose called to him happily.

The Doctor turned to her. 'Good morning Rose. And I see the dog is all cleaned up now. I discovered some bags for him in the kitchen, if he's hungry.'

Rose led Sam down to the Doctor's level. 'Doctor, what do you think of the name Sam?' She asked him. The dog shyly stopped behind her leg and glanced up at the Doctor. The Doctor leaned down to his height. 'Hey Sam.' He spoke to him gently, holding his hand out for Sam to sniff. Sam inched forward and, when he recognized Rose's scent, bound over to the Doctor for affection. The Doctor jumped back up in surprise, but leaned down again to pet the excited dog.

Amy and Rory walked down from their bedroom and the Doctor stood back up. He fiddled with something on the console while Rose, Amy, and Rory all said good morning to each other. The Doctor felt something strange coming from the dog, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He told the TARDIS to scan the pooch by fiddling with those knobs on the screen, but the TARDIS seemed to not be able to sense the creature's presence. That, or the TARDIS was ignoring the Doctor, which it hardly ever did.

Amy spoke a greeting to the Doctor, and he turned his distracted gaze from the screen. 'Good morning to you too, Pond.' He said with a glance in her direction. The TARDIS began moving and the Doctor meandered in circles around the console, pressing buttons.

_Just like old times. _Rose thought to herself. She thought she'd notice all the differences in this regeneration, but instead she seemed to be noticing the little things she never really expected to travel with him for three regenerations, such as his habit of leaning against the console and fidgeting with the knobs. Rose didn't know if they actually did anything, but the Doctor sure acted like many of them didn't.

Sam wound his way between Rose's legs and stared up at Amy with puppy-dog eyes. Amy, unable to resist the draw of the cute, leaned over to pet Sam. Amy was still petting him when the TARDIS landed and the Doctor threw open the door. As soon as he heard the door open, Sam grabbed Amy's scarf and sprinted out of the TARDIS. Amy, of course, went chasing after the dog, leaving the rest of them with no choice but to follow as well.

The intended destination was another alien planet, but once again, the TARDIS didn't land where the Doctor told her to. They were an alien planet, but this was definitely not the one the Doctor meant to bring Rose to on her first trip back in the TARDIS with him. The people on this planet held a grudge with Earth humans. This planet, like Earth, had humans. However, these humans were more hostile and aggressive than the humans on Earth and took enjoyment in seeing other creatures held prisoner.

Sam sprinted towards a large field and in the middle, where there was a bare spot without grass, began digging in the dirt. Rose and Amy ran and dropped down next to him, trying to pull him away from the dirt and let go of Amy's scarf. His lack of a collar, however, made it difficult for anyone to get a grip on the slick fur. He dug and dug until his claws hit something solid. He began barking and yipping until the Doctor came over.

Sam had unearthed an old rusty hatch. Amy, Rory, and Rose gathered around while the Doctor whipped out his trusty sonic screwdriver. He scanned the hatch with it and, upon reading the results, leaned down to attempt to open the strange trapdoor. Like so many doors they encountered, this one was locked. He once again pulled out the sonic and unlocked it with a click of a button.

As dangerous as this dark seemingly endless ancient pit seemed to be, there was no stopping the Doctor from climbing right in and descending into the dark. With a glance at Amy, Rose followed on down right after him.

'You've got a… smart dog there.' Amy said to her as she swung onto the rungs of the ladder as well. Rory began descending last, and all four of the time-travellers couldn't help but glance down into the darkness below them and seemed to stretch on forever. As they climbed downwards, the light from above quickly grew smaller and smaller, however, a light appeared down below them as well. It looked far away, but now they knew something awaited them below.

After descending for a few minutes, the Doctor pulled out his green and gold sonic screwdriver once again and scanned below in an attempt to both gauge the distance and check for any danger down below.

'Looks like we're nearing the bottom.' He said to his companions. Sure enough, after several more meters, Rose's foot touched the ground. The light, they discovered, was a light on the wall down a tunnel to the right. Several nervous barks were heard from Sam, and Rose contemplated climbing back up and waiting with him. However, she knew she couldn't leave her impulsive doctor to wander these hallways without her.

The tunnel soon led to a hallway that looked very much like a medical or scientific facility. The companions were all getting sinking feelings in their stomachs but the Doctor pushed forward, as if there was nothing to worry about.

Red lights down the hall began to flair as a siren wailed. 'Humans detected, west wing. Humans detected, west wing.' The Doctor, with a glance at his companions, began sprinting down the hall in the hopes of finding somewhere safe to hide. Though the Doctor did not say it, all the companions knew that they did NOT want to be found by whoever was in the facility. As they approached a split in the hallway, footsteps behind them cracked against the tile flooring. With a spin of his head, the doctor saw the armed guard racing towards them, hand reaching for a gun.

The Doctor picked a direction, left, and sprinted. In front of them, half a dozen more guards showed up. They turned, hoping to fight off the one, but the one had been joined by several more. Trapped in between the two groups in the hallway, they had no choice but hold up their hands in the universal sign of surrender.

From behind the second group of guards emerged a tall woman with striking red hair and a high-positioned look about her. She looked over the Doctor with his companions then spoke. 'How the hell did you get down here?' None of them replied and she tapped her foot impatiently. After a minute, she motioned to the guards. 'Just bring them to the containment unit.' With a quick flip of her hair, she stalked off down the hall as the guards crowded around the group.

The guards began escorting them all down the hall, the opposite direction as the woman. 'Doctor, what are we doing?' Rose whispered into her time lord's ear. They continued walking, whispering discretely to each other.

'It's not like we have any other choice. We've gotta follow. I'll get us out of here, I promise.' He replied to her in an obviously trying-to-comfort voice.

The guards led them through several turns. Rory and the Doctor both tried to remember the way they were going, but eventually they both lost track of the many different turns. Finally, they emerged in a holding area with a locked cell, one that the Doctor knew he could sonic his way out of. One of the guards opened up the cell for them and they all walked in obediently.

The guards walked away and Amy turned to face the Doctor with her sassy attitude. 'So… Doctor, what are we doing here?'

'Saw a hole, climbed in.' He replied simply and whipped out his sonic. He fiddled with it before pointing it at the lock. To everyone's surprise, nothing happened. The Doctor pulled his sonic up to his face and fiddled with it curiously, a look of utter befuddlement on his face.

The woman walked in, smiling at the Doctor and laughing. 'Did you really think your silly little sonic screwdriver would get you out of that cell? I'm smarter than that! What I really want to know though, is how you got in there? Or even better, how four humans landed on this planet in the first place?'

_Good. _The Doctor thought. _The surveillance thinks I'm a human. _

'Because… our sensors pick up any breach in the perimeter.' She walked to the cell door. 'And we have security cameras in perfect synchronization. They have no blind spots.' She slipped a key in the door and gestured for the Doctor to back up. 'Nobody ever walked through perimeter. Nobody landed a ship within perimeter. So that leaves one thing…' She walked into the cell. 'That means you've got a TARDIS. Nothing else can breach these perimeters, I even know when a vortex manipulator gets in.'

The Doctor frowned. _Or maybe she does know… _

She looked around at everyone, then the Doctor who seemed to have the air of authority in the group. She saw the way he was glancing at the blonde. So she walked to Rose, grabbed her arm, and began pulling her to the door. 'I'm gonna take your friend here on a… trip around the facility. She'll see you later.'

The Doctor lunged forward, reaching for his Rose. The woman yanked her out of his grasp then walked out, leaving the Doctor fumbling once again for his sonic. The woman popped her head back in. 'By the way, my name is Vatra.' She popped back out and a call from Rose could be heard. 'Doctor!'

The Doctor pushed at the door and soniced it for several minutes. 'Doctor, it's not going to work, you heard what she said.' Amy commented as he tried several more frequencies. Finally, after several more comments from the two companions, he finally admitted defeat.

'Doctor, I know we can get her back. You can get her back. But standing here and waving your screwdriver at the door isn't the way to do it. We've got to wait. Something will show itself, some weakness or loophole. I'm sorry, but there's really nothing we can do right now.' Rory said to the Doctor, knowing what it's like for a lover to be stuck where you can't get to her.

The Doctor sighed. 'You're right Rory.' He sat down on the ground and put his head in his hands. 'I've lost her too many times, I can't lose her again.' He muttered to himself.

Though Amy had no idea what he was referring to, she refrained from asking him. He stayed curled on the floor like that for at least an hour, in which time Amy and Rory found themselves entertaining each other by pointing out shapes in the discoloured walls.

After what Rory estimated to be 3 hours, a piercing scream worked its way through the concrete walls. Vatra walked back in soon afterwards. The Doctor jumped up and ran to the door, a look of desperate concern on his face. 'Where's Rose?' He yelled to her. 'Where is Rose?' His tone became more troubled.

She smiled deviously at him. 'Now now, I think we have more important things to talk about…. Time lord.'


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Rose walked forward, being pulled along by Vatra's iron grasp on her arm. She hated to be pulled away from her Doctor, but she really had no choice- Vatra had whispered a threat into Rose's ear and Rose had quickly obeyed her, despite the growingly dangerous situation she was in. They continued down the hall and turned into a large white room with a table in the middle. There was some equipment around the room against the walls, but none of it plugged up to anything.

Rose took a shaky step forward and Vatra pushed her in further. Vatra guided the now trembling Rose to the table in the middle and sat her down. No straps were put on her, which allowed Rose to relax slightly. That meant they weren't going to torture her or anything… yet. Vatra sat down in a chair across from Rose and stared at her for a moment.

'I see that man in the bow tie cares a lot about you, hmm? I don't need much from you, I just want you to tell me one thing. Where in the universe did you four get your hands on a TARDIS? There's no way you found one on Earth- Earth has nothing near that sort of technology, nor would simple Earthlings be able to understand the darn thing if they found on in the first place. They're a lot of trouble for me, you know.' Rose stayed silent though the woman's gaze unnerved her. 'They're the single thing that can breach the security of my facility. And I've worked a long time perfecting this security system; I don't want plain old Earthlings walking in on it.' She looked at Rose with penetrating eyes, feeling in her gut that these four weren't simple Earthlings. She was Vatra after all; she needed to know the entire story and more- much more.

With no reply from the blonde, she sighed. 'I don't want to do this, but I can always just search your mind for it.' She got up and paced slowly towards a machine lined up on the wall. It looked much like the domes hairdressers would put over someone's head, but inside was filled with lights that reminded Rose vaguely of the old sonic screwdriver, the silver and blue one.

Rose glanced around at the other machines and found herself grateful that Vatra was walking to the least menacing of them all. She silently slid off the table as Vatra's back was turned and reached for the floor, having spotted a paper clip. Though nothing of great concern was happening to her at the moment, Rose thought to pick up the paper clip just in case she needed it. They could be used for many things, after all. She slipped the cool piece of metal in her back pocket and sat herself back down on top of the tablet again just as Vatra grabbed the rolling tray the machine was on and pulled it over.

Vatra smiled at Rose while she powered up the machine. 'This will be painless, as long as you relax. Please don't make any trouble, I'd like to avoid calling in the guards.' Vatra tried to comfort Rose as a doctor may comfort a patient before giving an injection. She positioned the machine behind Rose and began lowering the domed headpiece. Rose began to shudder, scared of the information Vatra could pull from her mind.

Things ran through her head, each word tensing her muscles more and telling her to run. _Time-Lord, Immortal, TARDIS, time travel. _The memories of all the things, good and bad, she had seen of her doctor floated through her mind and she knew she couldn't let Vatra get to her memories, at least not without a fight.

While Vatra was unsuspecting and fiddling with things on the control unit of the machine, Rose leaped off of the table and ran for the door. Vatra simply glanced up at her, and then went back to adjusting the dials. Rose yanked the door open, only to find that two large guards had been waiting outside, guarding the door for instances such as this. The larger of the two picked up Rose in his arms and restrained her kicking and flailing as he walked her back into the room. He set her down softly on the table and held down Rose's flailing limbs while his colleague pulled some Velcro strips from a drawer and placed them around her wrists and ankles, connecting her securely to the table.

She twisted, trying to reach her head out of the range of the machine, but to no avail. The guards placed themselves this time within the door and watched as Vatra hit a small blue button on the unit. The machine began to make noises all too familiar to Rose. She twisted to view the dome and the blue lights flashed, scanning first Rose's physical form, preparing to scan her mind. She couldn't see the results Vatra was getting, but she knew they weren't showing up as normal human.

Rose sat there pushing against her restraints, trying to avoid thinking about all Vatra could find within her mind. Through the whirring of the machine, she could hear Vatra gasping as the results began to show on the screen. Rose could hear murmurs of 'I can't believe it!' from Vatra and she stopped pulling on the restrains, knowing that Vatra had found exactly what Rose wanted to hide about herself from this monster. The machine whirred for minutes before Rose could feel the power of the sonic-like devices pushing their way into her mind. She couldn't hinder them; she could only feel as they crept into her unconscious thoughts and memories.

Through this unusual sense of probing, Rose was unable to judge the length of time she had been in here, focusing instead on trying to locate the things the probes were discovering. Every time she heard a gasp or 'wow' or 'oh my god' from Vatra, she shuddered. With every comment, the fear that Vatra was going to keep her here grew and grew until she had all but given in to the idea that she was never going to leave this facility of Vatra's will.

Finally, after some considerable length of time, the machine finally stopped whirring and Vatra simply stared at Rose in bewilderment. Then a look of anger grew on her face. 'How are you lying to me through the mind-probe? The time-lords are all dead, and they have been for a long time!' She looked at Rose's face, now lack of fight, and knew that the machine was not lying. The man was in fact a time-lord, and she was in fact immortal, as far as she knew.

'You're… you… but you're human!' She cried. Her faced changed as she remembered glimpses of other memories that had been picked up by the probe. Her face softened. 'You've had a challenging time though, but with a man you love.' Vatra then smiled deviously. 'I'll never have a chance like this again! To study a time-lord and his companions… You're the perfect example of the positive effects of time-travel! With you, I can convince the board to finally give me the funding to design a new TARDIS.' She unstrapped Rose and the blonde stood up shakily from weak muscles after being tensed for so long under the machine.

Vatra gave Rose an awkward side-hug, smiling at her fantasies of creating her very own time-traveling spaceship. She motioned at the guards and Rose finally seemed to snap back to attention. 'Boys, why don't you bring her to Josh's old room?' Vatra sauntered out of the room with a smile plastered on her face.

The guards grabbed Rose's arms loosely and this touch brought the fight back into her. With Vatra gone for the moment, maybe she had a chance of at least making it back to her Doctor. The guards dragged her out of the room and she let out a scream, as if the sheer noise would cause the guards to release their grasp. She flailed and struggled, hoping to yank herself free of the two men.

Sadly, her entire struggle was to no avail. The guards continued dragging her down the hall, in the opposite direction of her Doctor in his cell with the companions. They threw her into a room down the hall and locked the door behind her.

'Let me out!' She yelled into the door as she pounded her weak fists against the strong door. The guards didn't respond, to no surprise to Rose. She leaned against the door pitifully before turning around to explore her new living space. There was a simple bed with red and blue bedding set and a lamp to match on the basic side table. On the left was a dresser with a single picture frame on it. Curiously, Rose approached the dresser. She dug through the clothes in the drawers, finding two pairs of worn jeans, a rarely worn pair of khakis, a green polo shirt, two graphic T's, a torn blue zip-up hoodie, several pairs of white socks stained with dirt, and some boxers. The picture in the frame proved her theory that this room once belonged to a teenage boy. He was in the photo, smiling brightly and sitting on a picnic blanket next to Vatra, but something about the face seemed familiar to her. 'Her son?' Rose whispered to herself questioningly. She stared at the familiar face and wandered to the bed where she sat down, deep in thought.

A red backpack in the corner caught her eye, and she dug through it, hoping to find something that could help her escape. Sadly, the bag was empty and served no purpose for her at the moment. Instead, she returned her focus to the boy in the picture. She definitely knew this boy, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

She set down the photo on the bed and collapsed with a sigh. 'Oh, Rose, what has the Doctor gotten you into this time?' She muttered to herself.

A scratching to her right woke Rose up. In the dark of the room, she couldn't identify the form that was most definitely outside the window. She leaned over to the wall and clicked on the lamp, flooding the room with light. Outside of the small window, Rose recognized her familiar dog, Sam.

Sam's eyes gleamed at her and stirred up a recent memory in her mind. 'Those eyes…' Rose whispered as she couldn't help but think of the photo sitting on the foot of the bed. She snatched up the photo while the dog whimpered and she got a good look at the boy, Josh's eyes. She flashed her gaze back to Sam and the connection hit her.

Sam has struck her as quite human before and now she understood why. Sam was Josh, stuck within the dog's body. How he got there, Rose had not a clue, but she knew for certain that it was in fact Josh. The Dog, Josh Rose reminded herself, held a paper in his mouth, anxiously trying to get inside. Rose pushed the window, opening it as much as she could. The small opening was nowhere near big enough for the canine, but that's not what Josh wanted. He slipped the paper down into her room and ran away.

Rose picked up the damp, crinkled paper and looked at the uneven, hasty scrawl.

_ Rose,_

_In case you haven't figured it out, Vatra is my mother. Yes, I'm the wolf. I don't have much time, but I'll explain it as much as I can. Mom was trying to create herself a TARDIS, and I was watching with her. The machine malfunctioned, sending me crashing into Earth as a wolf. Or a dog, I'm really not sure. Anyways, I get a few minutes as a human in this full moon here, but I'll be changing back soon. I'll try and get you out, can you pack me some clothes?_

_Josh, or as you named me, Sam. _

_P.S. You need to know something about Mom… _

The letter dissolved into a scribble of illegible gibberish and Rose assumed Josh must have unfortunately changed back into the dog.

'Oh Josh, I promise, I'll get you human again,' Rose promised herself as she turned off the light and waited for something to happen.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

'_Now now, I think we have more important things to talk about… Time Lord.' _

The Doctor's mood sunk. _What did she do to Rose? _He wondered. There was no way Rose had given up that information of her own free will. He took a shaky step backwards from the door.

Vatra unlocked the door and walked in so as to talk comfortably with her prisoners. She was most excited about the doctor, yet she looked at Amy and Rory with interest as well. 'Let's start with you.' She looked at the Doctor. 'I thought the Time Lords were all dead.'

The Doctor answered her with harmless knowledge. 'I'm the last one.' _Maybe that will convince her to keep me alive. _He thought to himself. At first, Vatra didn't believe him, but with the sadness coming forth from his eyes, she knew nothing else would hurt this Time Lord more… apart from losing his Rose.

'Why did you come to our planet? We've done nothing wrong, yet here you are.' She smiled at him eagerly.

'We were supposed to be going somewhere fun, but my TARDIS has a mind of her own. Something is going on here, but I honestly have no idea what and would be pleased to go on my merry way and leave you alone.' The Doctor replied to her, speaking nothing but the truth to this woman. It was only part of the truth; nothing would please him more than leaving but he knew he had to stay because of his naughty TARDIS.

Vatra looked at him in disbelief. 'If I know anything about Time Lords, it's that they can't ignore a good mystery. If I were in your position, I'd certainly be curious as to why I had been brought to the wrong destination.' The Doctor offered no alternate statement, and after a moment of silence, Vatra moved on. She turned to Amy and Rory.

'You two must be the companions then.' She said.

Amy spoke up quickly. 'I'm Amy, and this is Rory, my friend.' She did not offer up more specific information, fearful that Vatra would try to take her Rory from her just as she had taken Rose from the Doctor.

Vatra studied the two closely. 'Oh come on, it's obvious you two are together. I knew that as soon as I walked in. Tell me, how did you meet the doctor?' She asked.

Amy told her the truth, knowing how ridiculous it sounded. 'When I was a little girl, a mad man with a box crashed into my backyard.'

Vatra laughed. 'Seriously, how'd you meet him? He's the last of his kind; I doubt he'd just crash into a little girl's backyard.' She glanced to the Doctor. She lowered her voice. 'Or maybe he did.'

She stood up and turned to the door. 'Well, it's getting late.' She walked out of the cell, leaving the threesome to sleep on the cold ground. They all exhaustedly sat down, Amy and Rory sitting together while the Doctor fell asleep next to the door.

Amy and Rory both slowly drifted to sleep as the events of the day caught up with them. When the threesome woke up in the morning, there were plates of breakfast waiting for them on the floor. There was a simple piece of bread and an apple on each plate, along with butter and a soft plastic knife. They ate their meagre amount of food in silence and waited for someone, most likely Vatra, to return. By the time she did return, it had once again gotten dark outside.

How about I show you to your rooms?' She opened the door and left it open as she walked out. The three followed her slowly, advancing warily while stretching their stiff legs.

She led them forward out into the hall where two guards were waiting. The guards followed behind while Vatra walked with purpose. At the first door, she gestured for the Doctor and Rory to go in. 'Come on boys, you two can be roomies, can't you?' She replied with a joking tone as they hesitated to leave Amy.

Slowly, they both walked in. Vatra closed and locked the door behind them and walked on, the guards ushering Amy to follow. She led Amy far down the hall and turned down a side hall once before stopping in front of a room. She opened the door, and Amy smiled when she looked inside. Rose waved light-heartedly. Vatra pushed Amy in softly and closed the door behind her.

With the door closed, Rose broke into a huge grin and held a piece of paper to Amy. 'Amy, you won't believe it! Sam! His name isn't Sam, its Josh. And he's Vatra's son.'

Amy snatched the folded paper from Rose's grasp, opened it, and read it quickly. 'That's… interesting.' She said once she had finished. Rose was about to say something to her, but a scratching on the window distracted them.

The two girls twisted to the window to see a naked boy. He was shrouded by the darkness, but his eyes gleaming in the lamplight were surely that of Josh. Amy gasped and Rose ran to the narrow window, opening it for the boy. He slid through the tight gap and dropped to the floor, hiding himself as he ran to the dresser. He yanked out a pair of boxers and slipped them on, then turned hastily to the girls in his room.

"Sorry about that." He said to them. "I don't have much time, but I can tell you one thing. If mom finds out that that man is a time-lord, you'll never get out of here. You're going to need to escape out the way you came. The best time would be in the next few minutes, while the guards are all on break. When I turn back into a wolf, you can let me loose down the hall to cause a distraction. My mom will know who it is, so she won't hurt me." The boy looked at them in earnest.

Rose spoke first, since Amy was still in a surprised stupor. "That might work. We just need to figure out how to get the Doctor and Rory." With the mention of her husband, Amy finally snapped back to reality. "I know where they are. If we take Josh with us, then we can get him to run down the hall and get the guards from the door away."

Rose smiled. "And I know how to get back to where we came from. I noticed the same hallway when I was brought here."

The three friends nodded to each other, knowing this was as good a time as any to get started.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Amy and Rose watched in awe as the teenage boy in the room crumpled to the ground and held his stomach. "Stay back!" He hissed to them when they stepped forward. He groaned quietly, trying to prove to the women that he was a strong man, and in a matter of seconds, the dog stood in front of them once more.

He wagged his tail to them, assuring that he was fine. With a sigh, Amy turned to the door. "Now that he's a dog again, let's get moving."

Rose slung the backpack onto her shoulders and peeked out the door. She emerged the rest of the way into the hall and gestured that the coast was clear. Amy, hanging onto Josh's scruff, tiptoed out next to Rose. She began leading the way to the Doctor and Rory's room. Josh trotted alongside eagerly awaiting his chance to run down the hall.

After several turns, Amy stopped and peered around the next corner. She darted back and whispered, "The guards are still posted there, as I expected. So, to clarify, we're going to let Josh loose, he'll distract the guards, and then we'll get the boys and meet Josh back at the ladder if he can make it?" Rose nodded. "And he said to wait no more than 20 minutes, right?" Rose nodded again.

Amy leaned back out to the hall and dragged Josh in front of her before letting go of his scruff. At once, he was sprinting down the hall, barking and howling like crazy. The guards looked stunned for a moment before both of the large men took off after the creature, leaving the door completely unprotected.

When the two were long out of sight, Amy and Rose crept out into the hallway and to the door. Rose turned the doorknob slowly and opened the door inwards. As she stepped through the threshold, something hit her in the shoulder. "Ow!" She cried out, spinning around.

The Doctor's voice filled the room. "Rory! I said if it was Vatra! Vatra!" He rushed to Rose. "Are you alright?" He grabbed her shoulders and looked at her concerned.

"Sorry! Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Rory said hastily.

Rose turned to him, rubbing her shoulder. "I'm fine. It didn't hurt that much." She hugged her doctor and smiled, glad to have been reunited with him. "We're getting out of here, Doctor. She used this machine thing and pulled all sorts of information from my mind. We need to get out soon, before we're stuck here forever."

The Doctor nodded at her. "You know, I keep forgetting just how clever you can be, Rose." He smiled and looked into her eyes.

Amy and Rory hugged each other tightly. Amy explained what was going on to her husband and he agreed that their plan was pretty clever. However, neither Rose nor Amy revealed Josh's secret. They knew that was for him to tell on his own. After all, they had decided if Josh didn't get to the ladder in time, they'd come back for him.

After their short reunion, the four got a move on in case the guards returned. They ran down the hall and Rose soon found the hallway she was looking for. She turned sharply down it and the others followed faithfully. As they sprinted down the hall, it grew dustier until they finally reached the dirt tunnel leading to the surface.

They all piled into the small tunnel where the lights of the hallways didn't reach so as not to be seen by any passers-by. They sat for a few minutes and caught their breath, paying little mind to their surroundings. After each had caught their breath, they began paying attention to the sounds echoing throughout the facility. Every once in a while, sharp piercing barks would work their way through the halls and Rose knew that Josh had yet to lose the people following him.

After several more minutes, Amy began to wonder if Josh would come back soon. She couldn't think of leaving him, but it had been his idea for them to escape if he wasn't back in 20 minutes. It grew warmer in the tunnel and the Doctor could sense that sunrise was approaching quickly, and when it arrived, they'd soon be found out. Or at least their rooms would be discovered empty.

When the group was about to get up and leave, a scratching of claws from the halls caught their attention. The soft scratch was definitely getting closer and they grew excited, hoping it to be their Josh. Sure enough, Josh appeared around a corner, carrying a small bag in his mouth.

Rory dropped to the ground. "Here Sam, here boy!" He urged, waving the dog to come in his direction. Amy momentarily wished she had explained about Josh.

The dog trotted over and dropped the bag by Rose's feet. She picked it up an examined it, but shoved it into the backpack. Surely when Josh turned human again, he'd know what to do with it.

Rory turned his head back to the Doctor. "Uh, Doctor… How are we gonna get him up the ladder?"

The Doctor simply smiled. "I'll show you." He swung an arm under Josh's chest and then heaved him over his shoulder with a grunt. "Oh, he's a bit heavier than I expected." With one hand on the canine and one on the rungs of the ladder, he began climbing his way slowly upward. It was slow-goings with Josh having to be carried, but there was no other way.

Rose climbed up next, followed by Amy and then Rory. Together, all four of them climbed up to the top. It felt like it took ages, and it probably did, but there was no good way for them to judge the time they had been climbing. When the Doctor finally reached the top, Josh jumped onto solid ground happily. The Time Lord lay down in the grass and the rest of the group did the same, giving their arms and legs a rest from the climb.

Across the field, sure enough, sat their TARDIS, just where she was before. When they had all gotten some quick rest, Rose dared to see if she had unlocked herself. She picked her tired body off the ground and slowly approached the blue box. As she got there, she reached for the handle and pushed, to find the TARDIS (no surprise) still locked. With a sigh, she pouted back over to the group.

"Well, the TARDIS is still locked and pretty soon, Vatra's going to notice we're missing. We'd better find somewhere to stay for a while, don't you think?" She said to her friends.

The Doctor glanced up at her. "There should be some abandoned houses or warehouses around the outskirts of the town. We should try there- get out of sight. We don't want anyone recognising us." The still-tired group all picked themselves up and began walking. Josh followed behind, trotting and wagging his tail.

Through the field the quintet walked and chatted quietly. Amy talked to Rory about things they'd need to do around the house when they returned while Rose told the Doctor more about her stay within the Torchwood facility. Josh, though staying silent, seemed to speak to the group with his body. They could all tell he had somewhere in mind to go and was excitedly leading them there. He walked in front, stopping and turning to check on his people every few minutes.

Pretty soon, they came upon the more populated part of the town. There were empty warehouses everywhere, but Josh was insistent on continuing forward despite the Doctor's urging to stop at the abandoned places. With a sigh, the Doctor would abandon his urging every time, only to spot another house he thought looked perfect.

Over the course of several blocks, Josh didn't hesitate at a single house; he walked forwards with purpose. Finally, as they were getting into the more populated area of the town, he stopped at a warehouse, scratched at the unlocked door which popped open, and trotted inside. It was clear from his movements that he knew this place. He turned straight for the stairs and led them up to a furnished area.

Rose was astonished. This warehouse, though clearly abandoned, had a couch, two mattresses on the floor, a table, and even a fridge! The fridge wasn't on, but there was a fridge nonetheless. Inside, non-perishable foods had been stuffed. _Those must be there so that bugs and mice don't get them! _Rose thought to herself. Clearly someone had put all this stuff here.

Even though the three humans and the Doctor were wary of someone returning, they all settled down. Rose took a mattress, Amy and Rory shared one, and the Doctor took the couch. Rose slid her mattress over to him and offered the other half, but he insisted upon staying on the couch, even though he really did want to have that mattress.

They all pulled off their shoes and lied down to rest for a while after their sprinting through the facility, climbing the ladder, and walking to the house. The Doctor pulled off his jacket and laid it across Rose as a blanket.

Amy's stomach growled and she padded to the fridge. She pulled out a jar of peanut butter, checked the expiration date and then opened the delicious food. With a lack of utensils, she resorted to using her fingers, which earned a groan from Rory. "Well, what'd you use then?" She said grouchily to him. He stayed silent.

As the group rested, the night grew closer and Josh grew more and more excited. He couldn't wait to turn human and show Rose what the vial he got was for! Ever since he had first seen her, he'd loved Rose. Not in a romantic way, but because she seemed like a good role-model; she was kind to everyone, whether human or not. She was strong in the face of danger, as so many aren't. And she wasn't at all like his mother. As the others drifted off into sleep, Josh quieted down too. He knew they needed their rest before he changed; the men still didn't know the full story about him.

As the moon rose, Josh felt his bones groan. He could sense the change coming on and he nudged Rose awake. She slowly opened her eyes, and upon hearing the groan that escaped Josh, she bolted awake. Trying to stay silent, she twisted for the backpack beside her. She tossed it over to the boy and turned away, waiting for him to fully change and pull on his clothes.

"Rose." The boy said when the coast was clear. She turned back to see him in the dark-washed jeans and red graphic T. He was also holding the small bag he had picked up as a dog. He unzipped it and pulled out a syringe and vial of bluish liquid. "I need you to inject this into me. My mom created it as a cure for her employees that had been subjected to too many of the waves that radiate from the machines, so I think it can cure me." When Rose hesitated, he continued. "She said if it was ever injected into a normal person, nothing would happen."

With that, Rose slowly reached for the stuff in his hands. "What dosage do you need?"

He looked down at his feet. "I'm not sure, but I've seen her do 3 mL on the others."

Rose was hesitant- she didn't want to overdose the boy. But she knew he only had a few minutes. With a sigh, she pulled the dose into the syringe and Josh held out his arm. He closed his eyes and took even breaths, his method for preparing for a needle.

Rose tried to be quick, but she was no expert with a needle. She pricked his arm and squeezed the plunger, just as the nurse back at home had done so many times to her. Josh continued his even breathing and when he felt the needle come out, he turned to look. The needle was leaving very little bleeding and he smiled. "That wasn't so bad." He reassured her. "Now, I need some sleep. I've barely been able to sleep for the past two nights."

As Josh prepared to sleep on the floor, the Doctor grumbled and rolled over. He fell without waking off of the couch and onto Rose's king size mattress. "Well, guess you're getting the couch." She said to the boy. He smiled and climbed happily onto the furniture while Rose curled up again on her side of the mattress. _How he didn't wake up for that, I'd love to know. _


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When Rose opened her eyes to the morning sun, she couldn't have been happier. In front of her eyes was the man she loved the most- her Doctor. He was still asleep, curled up on her mattress where he had fallen the night before. Rose enjoyed the sight of her calm and relaxed Doctor before getting up to check on Josh. She hoped he'd be awake before everyone else so that she could prepare them, but as she got up, she realised that Amy and Rory were both awake, Amy explaining the boy on the couch to her spouse.

Rose tiptoed softly to the boy on the couch and admired the youthful innocence on his sleeping face. While conscious and in the cover of darkness, his face hadn't appeared nearly as stress-free as it did now. Now he truly looked like the teenage boy he was.

He slowly and groggily opened his eyes, and when he saw Rose in front of him, a smile spread across my face. "I'm still human." He whispered to her, relieved that his idea actually worked; Rose was just relieved he hadn't overdosed.

"Yes you are." She said lovingly to the young boy. In the little time they'd been together, he'd become much like her little brother. She cared for him deeply, even though she hardly knew anything about his life. With a smile, she helped him off the couch. "We need to explain you to the Doctor. Let's wait for him to wake up though; he needs his sleep."

Josh nodded and Rose smiled back to him.

Josh and Rose sat down on the ground next to Amy and Rory, whispering amongst themselves while they waited for the Doctor to awaken. It took until Rory saw Josh's eyes up close that he finally believed it was the same mind in a different form. When he finally did see it though, he let out a holler of epiphany. "Oh! I see it now!"

The Doctor grumbled and began to awaken, being disturbed from his peaceful slumber by the roar of his companion. "Rory…" He began but it just came out as a grumble. He rolled to face where the voice came from but hung his head. When he saw that he was on the mattress instead of the lumpy couch where he was originally, he looked up at his Rose. "Why am I…" He cut off, spotting the boy.

He stared open-mouthed for a moment. "I… Why is there a boy here?" He was utterly confused and taken by surprise, something that didn't happen to him very often anymore. He knew that this boy certainly wasn't here before. However, the Doctor failed to notice that 'Sam' the dog was missing.

Rose stood up and walked over to her man. The boy followed and when he got close, he sat down. Rose spoke softly, explaining the whole situation. "Well, this is Josh. He's Vatra's son actually, but he got turned into a dog when one of Vatra's experiments went wrong." She paused to let her Doctor absorb this new information.

The Doctor stared at the two of them for a moment. "Okay then. Well, I see this dog thing is sorted then?" He asked curiously.

Rose nodded. "When we were escaping yesterday, he brought this little bag to me." She held up the black bag that held the syringe and vial. "Then when he turned into a human for a few minutes last night, he told me what to do with it."

"Wait. He turned into a human last night?" The Doctor asked. Rose continued her explanation. "Yes, he, for some reason, turned into a human for a few minutes every night since we've been on this planet."

The Doctor thought for a moment, but accepted this strange explanation. He'd certainly seen and heard stranger things in his travels. Rose added one other fact. "Oh, and his name is Josh." The Doctor nodded in acknowledgement.

Josh looked down at his hands and twiddled his thumbs, as if he needed to tell the ground something. Finally, he spoke. "Hey guys… I know you don't like my mom very much, but I really miss her. She is my mom after all, and she's really not as bad as you think. Do you think…." He paused anxiously. "Do you think you could bring me back to her? Or at least get me back to her lab? She doesn't know what happened to me, and I bet she's worried sick."

Rose agreed with the boy, understanding why he wanted to return. Despite the things she had done, she will always be his mother. From what she knew of the two, it seemed as if Vatra probably did care for her son, even if she wasn't so nice to others, and her son definitely cared back.

Without the approval of the others, Rose said "Of course we can bring you back." The Doctor looked to Rose in bafflement, while Amy and Rory sat dumbfounded.

"Rose, what are you thinking? We just got out of there, why should we go back?" Rory exclaimed. Rose could understand his thinking, but there was no way she was going to just leave Josh alone. Chances were that if he tried to get inside himself, the guards would stop him before they knew who he was. It was motivation enough for her to follow him and keep him safe.

The Doctor spoke in agreement. "Rose, if we go back in there, we might not ever get back out. It's too much of a risk. The boy is human again; Vatra will recognise him."

Amy spoke up after thinking about both of the men's points. "Even though Vatra may recognize him, who says the guards will? With us having just escaped, we don't know what kind of force the guards will use. If they don't know who Josh is when they see him, how do we know they won't just shoot? I'm with Rose on this one- we need to be there for him. He helped us, so we owe it to him to keep him safe."

Rory pondered his wife's point for a moment. It was true- they did owe the boy something for saving them. Yet Rory wanted nothing more than to just go home and have a nice night on Earth. He was growing more uncertain with Amy's fixation on the Doctor, and he wanted her to get back to human life soon. She needed some more normal.

Of course, since both women were bent on staying to help the boy, Rory and the Doctor hardly had a choice but to stay too. The Doctor sighed in defeat and finally nodded. "Fine, we can help Josh. But how are we going to get ourselves away from Vatra?" Rory resigned himself to staying silent.

Rose and Amy exchanged glances with Josh. Rose turned to the Doctor with a plan. "I'll offer her the knowledge of where she might be able to universe-jump. I bet she'll find that more interesting than a time-lord."

The Doctor couldn't believe what Rose just told him. After all, they had spent so much time keeping things like this from people. "What do you mean?"

Rose explained quickly. "Well, when I got transported here, I walked into a cave. I figured there must be a copy of the cave here too. I might as well assume so, since these are parallel worlds."

The Doctor pondered this for a moment. "Well, I guess that does seem like a safe assumption. But why would you want to let her know?" The Doctor still didn't quite get why she was willing to divulge this secret to someone.

Rose smiled, like it was obvious. "Well, first off, it's all the way back on Earth! Hopefully she won't go that far! Secondly, I bet that the stupid portal is closed by now anyways."

The Doctor thought back, remembering all the times he'd jumped universes. If the portal Rose had gone through was still there, it would easily be the longest open portal the time lord had ever heard of, so it was likely closed. If it was in fact closed then there's no harm done. Rose's plan was beginning to make quite a bit of sense now.

After several seconds of deliberation, he found himself nodding. "Fine, I'll allow this. Your plan had better work, Rose."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The group walked silently through the dark forest, winding their way closer to the facility where Josh's mother lied in wait. The Doctor was still uneasy about this plan, but he trusted Rose fully. If Rose believed this was the right thing to do, and if Rose believed that they'd get themselves out, then he trusted her judgement. The lights from the facility shone through the edges of the woods and they knew they were close.

Their plan was to trigger an alarm and wait for the guards. Once the guards approached, they'd let themselves be captured. Hopefully, Vatra had given the order for the group to be kept alive.

Tiptoeing onto the private property, everyone was tense. A building showed up in the distance, and all five of them kept their eyes scanning for danger as they approached. As Rose explained on the way, ideally they'd get all the way to Vatra before being found. Though nobody brought it up, they all knew the chances of that happening were impossibly thin.

The lights in the distance started blinking red, and the quintet knew they were in trouble. Everyone picked up their speed and kept a sharp lookout for anything or anyone suspicious. Several times, Josh pointed out traps that nobody else knew were there; he explained he had helped his mother design the security system.

Some security guards started flooding out of the doors, hustled into their formation, and approached the area where the intruders had crossed the property line. Skirting to the side and wrapping around the building, Josh led the group to an entrance free of the flood of guards. With this hopeful opportunity, Rose and Josh led the way to the door. As Rose passed Josh and got to it, she pulled on the handle, finding that the door was locked with a code. "Oh bollocks!" she said in frustration. "The door is locked."

Josh stepped to her side and typed in a code, causing the light to light up red. He looked grumpy. "Mom changed the code?" He exclaimed. "She never changes it! Now what?" He turned to Rose and the Doctor.

Without hesitation, the Doctor reached into his inner jacket pocket and whipped out his sonic screwdriver. "Not a problem!" He replied happily. In reaction to the strange frequencies, the door granted access to them. He handed the sonic to Rose while she held the door open. Amy, Rory, Josh, and the Doctor rushed inside. She pulled it shut behind them and locked it back with the sonic in case the guards came by this way.

Turning around, a long white corridor sprawled in front of them, completely free of guards. Josh began to rush forward, but the Doctor pulled him back, hesitating. "Something isn't right here…" He muttered, examining the lack of cameras. The security at this external door was just too thin to be normal.

Slowly, with a nod from the Doctor, Amy and Rory led them warily down the corridor, ready to react at any sign of a trap. As they neared the split at the end, a door fell shut behind them and Vatra appeared from around the corner with several guards at her heels.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" She laughed. "You all got away, only to come running back into our arms. Is it really that nice here?" She teased. "You should have just…" She trailed off, noticing the boy next to Rose. "J…Josh?" She said quietly, suddenly unsure of herself. "What is this?" She turned to the Doctor.

"Why is he with you?" She suddenly got angry.

Josh stepped forward and tried to explain. "Mom, they didn't do anything. Don't overreact."

She continued, as if she didn't hear him. "You kidnapped him didn't you?"

Josh tried again in desperation, knowing his mother acted irrationally in her anger. "Mom! It was your fault!" He screamed this at her and got her attention. She shifted back into a baffled mood.

"What? No it wasn't." She denied. "They obviously took you, then came back to wreak more havoc." She glared at the group as she said this.

Josh insisted again. "No mom. Your experiment did this. It turned me into a dog and sent me to Earth. They were just trying to bring me back here."

Vatra ignored him. "I don't believe you. Guards, seize them. Josh, you're coming with me." She grabbed him firmly by the arm and pulled him away. The guards rushed towards the other four, who backed against the door.

"Mom! Stop! They're friends!" Josh tried to reason with her. As he struggled against his mother, a guard came over and seized him too. Following Vatra, that guard carried Josh off.

"Josh!" Rose exclaimed. "Josh!" She tried to run after him, but was quickly grabbed by a guard who swung her over his shoulder. She tried to escape, ineffectively throwing punches into his beefy build. The other two guards went for the men, separating Amy from her husband. The guard with Rose snatched up Amy as well and Rory was quickly apprehended after that. Seeing his entire team had been caught, the Doctor let the third guard lock his arms around him as well. Defeated, the team was dragged down the hall and into three separate rooms- The Doctor in one, Amy and Rory in another, and Rose in the last.

Josh struggled in the arms of the guards, but to no effect. His mother soon got to her destination- the room Josh often referred to as the anti-brainwashing chamber. Anytime Vatra suspected an employee had been brainwashed by an enemy, she always brought them in here. Too many times, Josh hadn't ever seen those people again. His struggling picked up, but he was nothing for the guard who soon threw him into the large empty room. His mother, before closing the door, growled to him, "I'll be back to deal with you later."

Rose watched as Amy was put with her husband, but she was forced from her Doctor. "Doctor!" she cried. The guards locked her in the furthest room from his but she heard his guard speak to him before he left. "Vatra will be back here in a few minutes to handle you."

Rose's heart dropped. That meant the Doctor would have to be in a room alone with her, and Rose would have no idea what was going on. Vatra could do anything to him, and she'd have no idea. Too many times, Rose had been ripped away from him. With this fear growing, Rose curled up in the corner as tears streamed down her eyes.

Amy and Rory hugged each other as the door closed behind them. "Thank God we're together." Rory said to her. He thought about how they had separated Rose and the Doctor, and was immensely grateful he didn't share the same fate. He thought about the Doctor, imagining how it would feel to see Amy locked in a room alone without him. That's how he decided the Doctor must feel right now, and he hoped the Doctor was handling it okay. _If Vatra walks in there though, _He continued thinking, _he'll do anything for her if it means he can get back to Rose. _

Amy embraced Rory back, thinking about Rose. Just like Rory, she was imagining how she would feel if she were ripped from Rory and knew Rose felt that way now. She prayed that Rose was alright.

The Doctor stumbled into the room and as he turned around, the guard spoke to him. "Vatra will be back here in a few minutes to handle you." The door clicked shut, and it hit the Doctor that once again, they had separated him from Rose. _No, _he thought, _I will not let Rose be separated from me again. She's been through way too much. _Fury filled him, and he couldn't wait for Vatra to walk in that door. The instant she did, he'd make sure he'd get to see Rose again.

While he was waiting, he brooded in the corner, and planned out what to do. He decided that when she opened the door, he would slip past her and run to Rose's door. Then he'd get Rose to sonic open the door and Vatra would follow them. He'd still face Vatra, but at least Rose and him wouldn't be separated.

As soon as he decided this, Vatra burst in the door. _Missed my chance!_ He scolded himself. He leapt up and approached Vatra with hate filling his eyes. The same feelings shone back at him from her, and the two glared for a second. "Time Lord." Vatra growled.

"You disgust me." The Doctor growled back. "I demand to see Rose."

Vatra laughed. "Do you really expect me to let you see her? Do I look like I'm going to do anything FOR you? I'm more of the person who's going to make you hurt." She smiled deviously at him and he scowled.

Rose wiped her face off and pulled out the sonic. _I forgot I had this. _She thought to herself. She smiled and her bad mood lifted. With the sonic, she could surely get back to the Doctor. Legs shaking, she pushed herself up and walked to the door. _This sonic is different. _She thought as she twirled it in her fingers and looked for the right controls. _Surely, there's something similar to the old one? _Her fingers found a button and she pressed it, hoping this was the right one. Next to the button were some other buttons, and she kept pressing things until something seemed familiar. Soon, she figured out the new screwdriver and pointed it at the door. With a smile, she heard the lock pop. Hoping no guards were outside, she poked her head into the hallway. With the coast clear, she left her room and walked a few doors down to where she saw the Doctor get put.

Pointing the sonic at a door again, she hoped Vatra hadn't gotten here yet. The lock popped and Rose rushed into the room where her doctor was waiting.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

As the doctor's anger grew, the door burst open. Startled, he flicked his gaze to the noise and watched as a blonde girl armed with a sonic screwdriver strode confidently into the room. "Doctor!" She cried and ran to him, wrapping her arms around his torso. The Doctor, momentarily forgetting about Vatra, wrapped his arms around Rose with a sigh of relief and his growing hatred dissipated. "Thank goodness you're alright." He muttered into her ear. Nobody could calm him down like his companions, and there was no better companion than Rose.

Rose, spotting Vatra, stepped back from the hug and turned to the woman, keeping hold of her partner's arm.

With a slightly annoyed look, Vatra commented, "Well well well, what have we here? Seems like my guards aren't as good at their job as I thought." She walked up to Rose, who kept her arm interlocked with the Doctor's. "And I see you brought me the sonic screwdriver as well." She paused for a moment, studying the blonde. "There's something different about you, Rose. Maybe you're worth a study too." The smile she gave frightened Rose, causing her to grip her Doctor more desperately.

Building up her courage, Rose spoke up. "I came here from a different universe."

As expected, this caught Vatra's attention. "A different universe, you say?" She flicked her gaze between the man and the woman. "And I suppose you know how you got through?" Vatra's curiosity proved to the Doctor that once again, Rose had a brilliant idea. "You could show me?" Vatra questioned.

Rose nodded confidently to their imprisoner and Vatra's eyes lit up with excitement. As soon as Rose saw this, she spoke again. "I'll lead you there, but only on one condition." Vatra's smile fell, but her eyes stayed focused on the girl. She thought for a moment.

"What is it?" She muttered, already knowing and dreading the answer.

"I want you to let my friends and me to go free. I'll lead you all the way to the gate, but you have to promise to let us all go."

Vatra thought for a moment, clearly considering the idea. While she would love to know more about the Time Lord, this second universe was intriguing as well. After all, with how comfortable this girl was with the Doctor, perhaps there were more Time Lords on the other side. There could be so many other things in that universe that she could never hope to discover in this one. The possibilities were amazing, and Vatra was enthralled by them.

Her smile widened. "If you bring me to that gate, I promise I'll let all of your friends go free."

Amy and Rory were bored out of their minds. They had been waiting and waiting. At first, they were simply concerned for their fellow TARDIS-mates, but soon they convinced themselves that both Rose and the Doctor could handle themselves. The pangs of worry were still there, but they were pushed to the side. Knowing they couldn't do anything to help the other two, Amy and Rory did other things.

For a while, they considered the strange painting on the wall. It was some sort of abstract art that reminded Amy too much of the exploding TARDIS. Rory thought it looked like an elephant, but he couldn't convince Amy to see it. With a splash of blues, greens, and yellows, they pondered the possibility of an ocean or river, but changed their minds upon noticing the small stripes of red. When, with a sinking feeling, Amy recognized a rose among the chaos, she left the painting alone.

Once the distraction from the painting was gone, Amy sat down on the hard chair in the corner and studied the strange floor. It was made of some type of material not found on earth- It had the distinct feel of a cheap carpet, yet it looked exactly like a hardwood floor. The dark swirls in the caramel brown were fun to trace with her finger, but once she traced for a few minutes, the floor lost its appeal.

Finally, Amy and Rory ran out of things to do in the plain room and just started at the ceiling, waiting for something to happen.

After what felt like an agonizing time (it was actually about 20 minutes) the door opened with a creak and 5 bodies entered. In the front, was, of course, Vatra, followed by Rose and the Doctor, flanked by two guards.

"You're coming with us." Vatra said to the pair. "Let's all go board my ship."

The Doctor stumbled out of the ship after a long ride, his legs cramped and sore from lack of movement. Hastily, he directed his attention to the cargo bay where the crew was lowering down his TARDIS, just as Vatra had promised.

Just like in her parallel universe, Rose stared up at a speckled gray cliff that reached up into the sky. Without her equipment with her, she couldn't tell if there were strange readings from the top, but she prayed that for the sake of her friends that the gate was still there. Vatra motioned to her, and the group gathered back on the ship.

Vatra, wanting to keep her hostages with her until she was sure they weren't lying, got the ship to lift them to the top of the cliff. She drove Rose in front of her and let the Doctor, Amy, and Rory trail behind. "So Rose, where is this gate you mentioned?" She asked sceptically.

Rose glanced around, wondering the same thing for herself. "Well…" She began, "It was right here by this rock." She motioned to the large rock that stood above everyone's heads. She studied the Rock and her Torchwood training kicked in. Subtleties in the rock's surface were trying to tell her something. Slowly, she reached down and grabbed a broken pebble by her foot. Vatra turned to her as she hurled the small piece straight at the boulder.

The pebble disappeared. It did not bounce off the rock, clatter to the ground, or miss. The pebble simply disappeared the moment it hit the surface. Vatra smiled. So the gate was here- it was just invisible. Vatra stepped forward, anticipating this amazing new world. Suddenly however, she stopped in her tracks.

Flipping around to the group, she stared straight into Rose's eyes. "How do I know I'll make it through there safely?" After just a moment's pause, she continued. "Rose, you can go first." It was at this dismaying moment that both Rose and the Doctor realised that Vatra was never planning on letting them all go.

Vatra approached, grasped her arm painfully, and pulled Rose forwards towards the rock with her. Struggling, Rose tried to pull away and return to her Doctor.

With one final shove and a grin upon her evil face, Vatra launched Rose back into the universe she came from.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Rose felt the same shifting of her being as she had felt coming through the portal the first time, and she opened her eyes to find herself on the Cliffside back in her parallel universe. Vatra soon appeared behind her. Voices from the cliffside alerted Rose that they were not going to be alone for very much longer, and so she turned to Vatra with hatred in her eyes and screamed.

Of course, the humans scaling the Cliffside rapidly scaled the last of the rock and, upon seeing Rose, they took up a protective stance. It seemed, Rose decided, that not much time had passed in this universe as she had thought.

"What happened to you? Why didn't you respond to us?" One of the Torchwood members asked.

Rose turned to him. "It's a long story."

Vatra interrupted her. "Rose, what the hell is going on?!"

The Torchwood members stood on high alert, awaiting a response from Rose.

"Take this woman into custody." She said, and began making her way towards the edge of the cliff. Vatra began yelling nasty things at Rose for walking her straight into a trap, and Rose laughed at how untrue that was; this was just pure luck. Rose's harness had not been moved from where she dropped it, so she hooked it back up and repelled down to the bottom of the cliff. From above, she heard the other Torchwood members calling for a helicopter to pick up Vatra.

At the bottom of the cliff, people flocked around Rose, asking what had happened. She finally learned that she had been gone for several hours, which was a surprisingly short amount of time to her. The nearby helicopter hovered over the cliff and Vatra was restrained and lifted into the copter. At the same time, Rose was led into one of the SUVs and she began explaining her experiences to her superior. She led her through the events of the entire time between stepping through the portal and arriving back on the cliff, and her superior listened in awe. Rose finished her story and looked back over her shoulder at the cave atop the cliff, growing smaller and smaller as they drove away. As it was about to go out of sight, the white light flooding out of the opening suddenly disappeared. Rose's heart caught. Had the portal just closed? But she was going to go back to her doctor!

Her supervisor, Sherry Harver, pulled her away from her panicked thoughts. "Rose, how will we handle this Vatra?"

But Rose could not focus on the question. "The portal… it just closed! It closed! I've got to go back!"

Sherry raised her voice, trying to snap Rose out of it. "Rose, we need to know what to do about Vatra!"

Rose turned to her supervisor and slumped in her seat. "Not again…" She whispered. She would not let this happen again. The light probably hadn't disappeared, it had simply not shone that far. Simple. It was still there, still open.

Sherry touched her arm. "Rose, focus."

Rose looked up to her. "I gave you my story. Can I just get back to the office and clean myself up? It's been a long several hours."

Sherry sighed. "Fine Rose. But we won't forget about this. You'll have to deal with it tomorrow."

Rose nodded, knowing in her heart that tomorrow she would be happily living with her bow-tie wearing doctor.

The Doctor watched helplessly as Vatra pushed Rose through the portal. "No!" He screamed. He ran towards the wall, reaching for his Rose. He reached the stone wall and felt cold stone under his fingers, the wall would not give. The portal wouldn't let him through. "No… no no no…" he began muttering to himself. It couldn't happen again. He'd already endured this pain once, isn't that enough? He slapped the wall. Amy and Rory walked slowly towards him, unsure of what to do.

The Doctor looked up pleadingly at them. "I'm a time-lord, they're humans! Maybe it only works for you?"

Amy suspected what would happen, but she pressed her hand against the cold stone to prove it to herself and him. The portal was closed.

The doctor slid to the ground and pressed himself closer to the wall, rare tears leaking from his eyes. Amy and Rory sat down next to him and tried to help as best they could.

The SUVs had dropped Rose off at her apartment for the night, and she was expected to shower, rest, and return to work the next day. Instead, as soon as the SUV was out of sight, she hopped into her own car and sped back down the road faster than most people would dare.

Sherry was very concerned. She had seen Rose shortly after losing her doctor the first time, and she didn't know if Rose would be able to handle it again. If Rose didn't show up for work tomorrow, Sherry knew exactly where to look for her. In fact, Sherry turned her car right back around as soon as she reached the office

Rose pulled up to the Cliffside. She didn't have her harness this time, but she had made it up the first time, right? She began her climb, staying completely focused and trying not to rush. Not quickly enough, she reached the top safely. She stood up and ran towards the dark cave. "No…" She began whispering. Her eyes teared up the closer she got. She entered the small cave and found the cold wall. "No!" She cried. "No no no no no, not again! This can't happen again!"

She rested her face against the wall and sobbed. "No. no no no."

Sherry pulled up and saw Rose's car. "I knew it." She pulled out her gear and began scaling the rock. "I sure hope she can handle this." It took her much longer to reach the top than it did Rose. At the top, she heard the tell-tale noises of a broken heart. "Rose…." She whispered. She walked over to the collapsed girl pressing her face against the rock and patted her shoulder. She was freezing. "Come on Rose, let's get you warmed up." She picked up the girl by her arms and led her away from the rock, praying everything would be okay.

Amy and Rory glanced at each other and knew what they had to do. They both grabbed an arm of the doctor and pulled him off the ground where he had his face pressed up against the wall. "Come on Doctor, let's go. I'm sure the TARDIS has somewhere great for us to go. River may want to see you again, yeah?" Amy tried to make some small talk after that, but the doctor did not respond. They led him quietly away into the TARDIS where he was once again without his Rose.

THE END


End file.
